A London hospital trust "undermined people’s fundamental rights" by failing to respond to information requests, an investigation has found.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs King George Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen's Hospital in Romford, has been issued with an enforcement notice for its ongoing Freedom of Information (FOI) failings.
Hundreds of information requests went without a response within the legal 20 working day deadline, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found.
It said that the Trust responded to just 29 per cent of requests during the statutory timeframe over a year, with January 2024 seeing just 2.5 per cent of requests responded to in a timely manner.
In June there was a backlog of 785 FOI requests and the ICO said it had received multiple complaints.
Phillip Angell, from the ICO, said: “Everyone should have the ability to access public information. When this information is not received or is significantly delayed, it undermines people’s fundamental rights.
“This lack of transparency can also create unwanted barriers, risking public trust in the organisations we turn to at our most vulnerable.
“The public put trust in the NHS and Police when it comes to health and safety, so why, when those same organisations are asked to supply information, are they not met with the same trust?
“There are very clear legal requirements when it comes to FOI requests and therefore these failures have unfortunately resulted in regulatory action. These authorities must do better to clear their large FOI backlogs and put procedures in place to guarantee the timely response to all FOIs in the future and ensure that the public right to information is upheld.”
The Trust, which recently came out of special measures over patient care and finances for the first time since 2018, has been given 35 days to devise and publish an action plan to clear this backlog by the end of the year.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has been contacted for comment.
