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Following the criticism of Kensington and Chelsea council by the information commissioner for failing to disclose information relating to the Grenfell Tower fire, Kent Law School research assistant Laura Binger said ‘an unprecedented number of requests is no excuse’.
She went on to say: ‘Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham is taking the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) to task for its failure to respond to a number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and its failure to respond to the Commissioner’s enquiries.
‘The FOI Act 2000 requires public authorities to respond to requests for information within 35 calendar days, but in all seven cases considered by the Commissioner RBKC failed to communicate with the complainants for more than six months. RBKC’s failure to communicate extended to the Information Commissioner herself, who did not receive a response when she notified RBKC of the complaints.
‘The council’s spokesperson responded by asserting it has ‘received an unprecedented number of FOI requests‘. Large numbers of FOI requests should be anticipated in the aftermath of a disaster like the Grenfell fire, and nine months after the fire measures should be in place to deal with that.
‘Responding to FOI requests takes on added urgency in these circumstances as people seek to understand what happened, find out about risks at other buildings, and meaningfully participate in solving the problems the fire exposed.
‘RBKC’s unresponsiveness to FOI requests make a procedure that should be simple and quick complicated and slow. People have faced difficulties accessing information from RBKC and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) for years.
‘In a May 29, 2016 blog post titled ‘Freedom of information and the Arrogance of Power’, Grenfell Action Group wrote that RBKC refusals of information requests had ‘all the appearance of a cynical game the Council plays, the main point of which appears to be to discourage Freedom of Information requests by making the process as lengthy, frustrating and complicated as possible for the applicant’.
‘The Initial Report of the Independent Grenfell Recovery Taskforce cited ‘a severe trust deficit between the local community and RBKC’. Responding to FOI requests is an important way that RBKC engages with the world outside its walls, and doing so well is one essential part of rebuilding trust with the community.
‘In stark contrast to RBKC, a surge of interest in the importance of participation and transparency in the wake of Grenfell has given added urgency to proposals to widen and strengthen the public’s access to information, especially when it comes to housing and fire safety.
‘Commissioner Denham encouraged public bodies to take proactive approach to publishing fire risk assessments, and Hackney has taken this step by making more than 1,800 fire risk assessments of its buildings available through its website.
‘There is also a movement to address the specific barriers that social landlords like housing associations pose to accessing information. When Grenfell Action Group requested minutes of a meeting about the tower’s refurbishment between KCTMO, Rydon, and Studio E, in 2015 KCTMO fell back on its TMO status to argue that the FOI Act would not apply to it because it ‘is not information held on behalf of a public authority…’
‘In Scotland, proposals to extend Freedom of Information laws to all registered social landlords are aiming to address this issue. Louise Haigh, Labour MP for Sheffield Heeley, has argued for a bill that would extend FOI laws more generally to private companies that provide public services.
‘Reports that a Hotpoint fridge-freezer started the Grenfell fire and that Whirlpool tumble dryers have been implicated in a number of other fires, including one in a 2016 Shepherd’s Bush tower block, have been cited by electrical goods safety campaigns to make information about product recalls easy to access and understand.
‘The London Fire Brigade’s Total Recalls campaign is pushing for a single government supported register listing product recalls, recognising that simply making information about product recalls available has not been enough to ensure that consumers find information about products they own.
‘It is far past time for RBKC to pick up the pace, and its inability to meet its legal obligations to provide information in these cases shows this still needs to happen. RBKC and other local authorities should strive not just to meet, but to exceed the minimum requirements of the FOI Act and take proactive steps to share information that can allow people to learn more about fire safety in the buildings where they live.
‘Making fire risk assessments available online is one way they can do this. The UK and devolved governments also have roles to play. They can widen the reach of the FOI Act clearly applies to all registered social landlords so that social tenants do not continue to face the same obstacles Grenfell Tower residents faced when trying to access information from their landlord.’
Laura Binger, a PhD candidate at Kent Law School whose research is focused on housing, homelessness and the Grenfell Tower fire.