Greater Manchester Police told to take 'urgent action' as force is rapped over HUGE Freedom of Information Act backlog

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Greater Manchester Police has been issued with an enforcement notice by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) over the force's 'repeated failures' to respond to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed today.

The ICO - the UK's independent regulator for data protection and information rights law - said GMP currently has a backlog of 850 overdue requests.

Of those, more than 800 are more than six months-old and 580 more than a year old. A spokesman for the regulator said staggeringly, the oldest open request was submitted almost two-and-a-half years ago. READ MORE: The huge transformation of a Greater Manchester neighbourhood named among the 'best up-and-coming places to live' READ MORE: "FREDO DROPS ALL DAY": The brothers who ran an infamous south Manchester drug line from their house Under FOI law, the public have the right to ask to see recorded information held by public bodies and authorities, with set timescales for responses in place depending on what the question and information requested is and how long it would take to process the relevant details.

The force was previously rapped by the ICO in February after routine monitoring showed GMP was the most complained-about police force for timeliness over the previous 12 months, said a statement on Wednesday.