Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many proposed Freedom of Information responses were awaiting clearance from (a) the Communications Directorate and (b) special advisers on 31 August 2026, and how many in each category had been awaiting that clearance for (i) up to 20, (ii) 21 to 40 and (iii) more than 40 working days.

The Home Office is the largest recipient of Freedom of Information requests across central government and received over 8,700 requests in 2025. The cases shown in the table represent a point-in-time snapshot of requests within the Communications Directorate and Special Adviser review processes and account for a relatively small proportion of the overall volume of FOI requests handled by the Department.

Cases within the Communications Directorate and Special Adviser review processes (information extracted and validated on 28 September 2026)

Note: The Department does not routinely retain historical reports showing the stage reached within the Special Adviser review process at a specific point in time. The figures therefore reflect information extracted and validated on 28 September 2026. Cases awaiting consideration by Special Advisers have been presented separately from cases elsewhere within the wider Special Adviser referral process.

The figures are management information derived from the Home Office's case management system and supplementary information provided by the Special Adviser Private Office. They have not undergone formal quality assurance.