FOIMan writes for PDP’s Freedom of Information Journal on the “ten things FOI requesters hate most” about the way public authorities handle their requests.
Those of you working for public authorities – FOI Officers and others – work hard, I’m sure, to get FOI responses out as soon as possible. And no doubt you do your best to keep the customers satisfied. But we can always do more, and a bit of constructive feedback can help us to improve.
But how do you get that feedback? Sometimes requesters ask for an internal review, but often they don’t. So we have to find other ways to get inside the minds of those who want to know more about our organisations. How? Well, what do most of us do these days when we’re annoyed with somebody? We Tweet about it, of course!
I’ve saved you some time by trawling Twitter, WhatDoTheyKnow and other sources to identify the behaviours that cause our requesters the most annoyance. It’s completely unscientific, but you can read what I came up with in my latest piece for PDP’s Freedom of Information Journal. If you’re a subscriber, your copy of the journal should be landing on your doormat (or in your inbox) right about now.