ICO Decision Notice: Ealing Council FOI Breach

ICO Decision Notices

Filed February 17th, 2026

Detected February 26th, 2026

Summary

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has upheld a decision that Ealing Council breached section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by failing to provide a substantive response to a request within 20 working days. The council must now provide the response within 30 days.

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What changed

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a decision notice finding Ealing Council in breach of section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for failing to provide a substantive response to a request within the statutory 20 working days. The decision, dated February 17, 2026, upholds the finding of a breach based on the evidence available at the time of the notice.

Ealing Council is required to provide a substantive response to the original information request within 30 calendar days of the decision notice. Failure to comply with this order could result in the ICO certifying the breach to the High Court, potentially leading to contempt of court proceedings.

What to do next

Provide a substantive response to the FOI request within 30 calendar days of the decision notice.

Penalties

Failure to comply may result in certification to the High Court and being dealt with as a contempt of court.

Source document (simplified)

Ealing Council

Date 17 February 2026
Sector Local government
Decision(s) FOI 10: Upheld A public authority will breach section 10 of FOIA if it fails to respond to a request within 20 working days. Based on evidence available to the Commissioner, by the date of this notice the public authority has not issued a substantive response to this request. Therefore the Commissioner finds a breach of section 10. The public authority must provide a substantive response to the request in accordance with its obligations under FOIA. The public authority must take this step within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.