Corporate report

DfE: freedom of information action plan, following ICO practice recommendation notice

Published 10 July 2025

Applies to England

In February 2024 the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued a practice recommendation to the Department for Education (DfE) as freedom of information (FOI) timeliness compliance was at 81% of requests responded to within the statutory time period.

The ICO noted that the department was taking action and that performance was improving. This report sets out the ICO’s recommendations and the action being taken to address them.

Recommendation 1

DfE should review its action plan and consider using the relevant action plan template that the ICO has published. DfE’s action plan should incorporate any recovery plan already in development and include specific time frames for completing actions. DfE’s action plan should be supported by a ‘lessons learned’ exercise which examines the root cause of delays from allocation through to clearance at different stages, with mitigations for any recurring problems addressed specifically in the plan.

DfE action

The DfE has complied with these recommendations and implemented the following:

• improved visibility of timeliness and late-case data through the provision of weekly and monthly data to the Permanent Secretary and director generals
• appointment of director-level Department of State Function (DoSF) champion within each group with special responsibility for performance
• regular DoSF meetings with individual groups to discuss FOI performance

• DoSF Board to:

  • prioritise FOI as key issue
  • assess risks associated with failure to improve target of 90% on risk register
  • make FOI  performance a key agenda item for each meeting
• all deputy directors to take greater active ownership of FOI requests within their area of responsibility
• deputy directors to provide sensitivity assessments where concerns about the sensitivity of information in scope are identified

Recommendation 2

DfE should ensure that staff have sufficient Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) training and are aware of DfE’s procedures and practices so that they can provide responses that fully comply with FOIA and the section 45 Code of Practice. DfE must make sure that its information rights training has adequate coverage in place so that request handling times do not fall below a compliant level if a key staff member leaves.

DfE Action

The DfE has implemented the following:

• online guidance suite updated to provide comprehensive support, including new training page with:
  • on-demand training videos
  • resources
  • materials
  • slides
  • links to ICO training resources
• agreement secured to include FOI in induction package for new starters
• FOI component added to legal advisers’ 2024 training sessions
• ‘Getting started’ drop-in surgery offered to all staff handling new requests
• one-to-one bespoke advice and support on all requests by FOI advisory team

Recommendation 3

DfE’s request handling procedures should include provision for when a response is late or is likely to be late at any stage of the internal processes. This should make it clear when to escalate and who to, who’s responsible for acting, the action they’ll need to take, and by when.

DfE Action

The DfE has implemented the following:

• followed up with teams on late requests
• improved live case data available to groups - data can be broken down by directorate, enabling correspondence leads to follow up and ensure prompt responses
• escalation process developed to director generals on ‘hard-to-place’ cases (such as closed policy areas or requests spanning multiple teams’ portfolios)