The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has told the Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office to improve their response times to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The departments were among 33 organisations monitored by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for three months last year because of concerns about delays in responding to FOI requests.

Both departments failed to meet a target of replying to 85 per cent of requests in within required timelines. The ICO is now discussing agreements with departmetns on how they can improve performance.

A spokesperson for the MOD said the department recognises its poor performance, adding: “We are a department whose work is very sensitive, wide-ranging and complex, covering issues of national and operational security."

The spokesperson also said that the MOD has improved its performance: in early 2011 the department responded to 71 per cent of requests within required timelines, compared to 49 per cent in 2009.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said FOI requests to the department increased by one third within the past year and added: "We take the Information Commissioner's comments seriously and we have already taken steps to improve our performance."

The ICO also monitored the Home Office, which did deliver the required improvements in response time. It responded to 90 per cent of requests within permitted deadlines, but the monitoring  raised further areas of concern which the ICO has written to the department about.

Organisations must respond to FOI requests within 20 working days.  This deadline can be extended where information requested is particularly complex, as long as the applicant is told about the delay within  20 working days from the initial request.

The ICO introduced  a system to monitor organisations which were taking too long to respond to FOI requests in October last year. It is now monitoring 18 new organisationsincluding Department of Education, the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Highways Agency.

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Written by Simona Rossi