Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) has seen a significant increase in the number and complexity of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests it receives, resulting in challenges in responding to all requests on time.
In November 2024 it contacted the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to make them aware of the situation and seek advice. The ICO requested information and statistics from OUH, during which it became apparent that approximately 900 cases received between 2019 and 2024 remained unanswered, having not been followed up or flagged as not responded to by the requestor nor the Trust's internal process.
On 14 April 2025 the ICO issued an Enforcement Notice requiring the Trust to devise and publish an improvement plan to respond to the unanswered cases, and improve its processes and resources to ensure that in future it can respond to all received FOI requests in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act.
Detailed statistics on our performance and the size of the unanswered caseload will be published at:
Freedom of Information - Oxford University Hospitals
Details of the remediation plan
- Undertake process mapping and analysis of current processes to identify bottlenecks and areas for improvement (completed 08/05/2025).
- Complete the ICO's Self Assessment tool to further assist in identifying areas for improvement (completed 28/05/2025).
- Review of Information Governance training given to staff who work closely with FOIs – refresher and ab initio materials to be made available where appropriate.
- Expanding of FOI statistics collected so that the Trust monitors and reports its FOI performance in line with the ICO Code of Practice.
- Review of the suitability of the FOI management platform used by OUH.
- Strengthen the internal reporting and escalation processes for cases that are at risk of taking longer than 20 working days to answer to provide better safeguarding against breaches.
- Review and where necessary increase the resources allocated to handling and answering FOIs across the Trust.
- Analyse the unanswered requests to identify:
- cases that can be closed without any further action
- duplicate requests
- cases that can be answered using data that has been supplied as part of a similar FOI
- cases where the answer has been collected but was not signed off for release
- invalid requests.
- Collect and provide responses to requestors of all other unanswered cases.
All historic cases to have been resolved by 31 October 2025.
We are committed to improving our FOI response processes and ensuring timely and accurate handling of all requests moving forward.
Detailed statistics on our performance and the size of the unanswered caseload will be published at:
Freedom of Information - Oxford University Hospitals
We appreciate the support and guidance from the ICO and remain dedicated to fulfilling our obligations under the Freedom of Information Act.
