PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Freedom of Information (24 April 2024)

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what the average time taken by his Department to respond to a freedom of information (FOI) request was in each of the last five years; how many and what proportion of FOI requests his Department did not answer within the target time in each of the last five years; and how many FOI requests to his Department have not been answered within the target time as of 24 April 2024.

Asked by:
Navendu Mishra (Labour)

The FCDO takes its responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously and will continue to strive to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the required timescales.

1. Number of cases received and answered on time 2019 - 2023

Year	Department	Total Number of FOI requests	Total Number answered on time	% on time
2019	FCO	1229	1146	93%
	DfID	436	430	99%
2020	FCO	828	665	80%
	DfID	288	283	98%
	FCDO	352	277	79%
2021	FCDO	1245	1080	87%
2022	FCDO	1214	956	79%
2023	FCDO	1362	866	64%

2. Number of cases received and answered on time 2024 - to date

Year	Department	Total number of FOI requests closed to date	Total number answered on time to date	% answered on time
2024 to date	FCDO	334	212	63%

Answered by:
David Rutley (Conservative)
2 May 2024