Does the ICO have any other powers to enforce the Act?
The Information Commissioner issues decision notices on complaints about specific requests for information. However, if a breach of the Act doesn’t fall within the scope of a decision notice, the ICO may decide to issue an enforcement notice.
The ICO can use an enforcement notice if you have failed to adopt the publication scheme or failed to publish in accordance with it (see
What information do we need to publish?).
The Commissioner may also use an enforcement notice if an authority is repeatedly failing to comply with its obligations, which she may have been made aware of from complaints or from other information available to her. For example, the Ministry of Justice publishes statistics for the time different government departments take to respond to requests. Also, problems with the way certain public authorities handle freedom of information requests may be discussed in the media or online. In such cases the Commissioner may issue an enforcement notice covering a number of different requests, whether or not the ICO has received specific complaints. An example would be where the Commissioner becomes aware of a backlog of requests at an authority and orders it to clear this by a given date.
The ICO may also ask you to sign an agreement that you will take a particular course of action to improve your compliance with the Act.
Further information about the Commissioner’s powers can be found in our web pages
Taking action – freedom of information and environmental information.
Are there criminal offences in the Freedom of Information Act?
Yes, section 77 states that it is a criminal offence to alter, block, destroy or conceal information.
Depending on the nature of the incident, an authority or its individual members of staff could be charged with this offence. The penalty is a fine.
There are no financial or custodial penalties for failure to provide information on request or for failure to publish information. But you could be found in contempt of court for failing to comply with a decision notice, enforcement notice, or information notice. This could lead to a fine or, in theory, jail for a senior officer of the authority.