Key information
Request reference number: MGLA310325-3123
Date of response:
Summary of request
Request
Since January 1st, 2024:
- How many requests for information have you received under the Freedom of Information Act?
- How many different people were responsible for making these requests?
- What was the highest number of requests for information made by one single individual?
- How many hours have been spent dealing with these requests for information, and what is the estimated cost of that?
- How many people at your organisation are employed specifically to deal with Freedom of Information Act requests?
Response
How many requests for information have you received under the Freedom of Information Act?
I can confirm that the GLA holds the information you have requested.
Between 1 January 2024 and 31 March 2025 (inclusive) the GLA received 1,318 Freedom of Information Requests. This figure includes requests made under the Environmental Information Regulations and excludes withdrawn requests, internal reviews/complaints, Data Subject Access Requests and other requests under UK Data Protection legislation.
How many different people were responsible for making these requests? What was the highest number of requests for information made by one single individual?
The GLA does not store or monitor requestor details in our FOI log, which is our primary record. As the FOI Act is “applicant blind” we have no reason to monitor this.
The GLA holds some limited personal data about requestors in our correspondence handling system, typically name and email address or postal address. However, we have no means to extract or run the personal data on this system against our primary record to obtain an accurate number of FOI requests by name/identifier in any given period.
- Although we do have a marker on the correspondence system to identify correspondence related to FOI and EIR, this does not tally with our FOI case log because it includes additional records – for example duplicate emails, follow up questions, emails chasing a response.
- The correspondence system does not allow us to filter cases by sender. We can only look up one name or email address at a time
- We would have to carry out a manual process by opening and reviewing each marked case on our correspondence system in order to establish if it is a request or not in line with our primary data, and extract personal data into a new record temporarily to enable tallies of names/identifiers
- This would amount to creating new information in order to respond to a request, which we are not obliged to do under the Act
If attempted, it would significantly exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. We estimate this would take at least 70 hours at 3 minutes per record. This does not take into account time for any more detailed checks or investigations where records are unclear/ambiguous.
Advice/assistance:
I am afraid that we are unable to suggest a way you might refine this element of your request.
How many hours have been spent dealing with these requests for information, and what is the estimated cost of that?
The GLA does not record this information.
How many people at your organisation are employed specifically to deal with Freedom of Information Act requests?
In the period covered by your request the GLA has employed three Information Governance Officers, who work on FOI requests (including EIR) as well as other Information Access and Information Governance matters.