Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they allow special advisers in government to review and delay responses to freedom of information requests.

All Freedom of Information requests are processed according to the provisions of the Act. In 2022, government departments and other monitored bodies responded to 86% of requests within the permitted time limits. FOI statistics are published regularly and can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics

It is in line with the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers to give assistance and advice on any aspect of department business, including on requests for information made under the Freedom of Information Act, and to convey a minister’s views to officials. This has been the case under successive Administrations. The Cabinet Office has circulated a guidance note to cross-government practitioners which sets out the roles of special advisers in the process of responding to requests for information and which is available on Parliament’s website at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmpubadm/576/report.html#heading-1.