The U.K Information Commissioner's office is withholding responses to information requests.

There has been a steady decrease in granting FoI requests in full since 2005 by the UK Information Commissioner's Office.

There has been a steady decrease in granting FoI requests in full since 2005 by the UK Information Commissioner's Office.Information Commissioner's Office is UK's independent authority set up to uphold information right in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and individual data privacy. The Freedom of Information (FoI) Act 2000 provides the public the right to request information from the government within a set time period of 20 days.

The Institute for Government states that the percentage of FoI requests has been increasing recently. Certain departments, such as the Foreign Office and Ministry of Justice (MoJ), have always tended to withhold information. Many government departments have been withholding the information down below 50% since 2016 due to various reasons, including complex and sensitive data. The departments have been using the 23 available exemptions to refuse the request, and personal information is the most common exemption. Further, it is attributed to departments lacking the required resources without expanding their capacity, and most of the information is available in the public domain.

The Cabinet Office's latest national statistics showed that 9,205 freedom of information (FOI) requests were received across all the departments during the April-June 2020 quarter. Of the 6,648 resolvable requests, only 37% were granted in full, and 36% were withheld. It is observed that most departments are late in publishing monthly records of their spending over £25,000.