Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken in response to the issuing of practice recommendations to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office by the Information Commissioner’s Office, following its assessment that the information request handling processes of that department "do not conform to parts 1, 4 and 5 of the section 45 Freedom of Information Code of Practice".

The FCDO takes its responsibilities under the Freedom of Information Act very seriously and will continue to strive to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within the required timescales.

We welcome the Information Commissioner's Office's (ICO) Practice Recommendations and have agreed to publish a full response by the 31 May 2024 as requested. We are considering all of their recommendations and are constructing a detailed implementation plan to improve our timeliness.