Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment his Department has made of the Government’s compliance with the applicant blind principle of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 120952 on 30 November 2020.

In a three month period between July and September 2020, departments received around 8,000 freedom of information requests and responded to almost 90% of them within 20 working days or with a permitted extension. This reflects the Government’s commitment to fulfill its freedom of information obligations despite the pressures of responding to COVID-19.

The FOI statistics for October to November 2020, and the annual statistics for 2020, will be published in April 2021, at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics