Freedom of Information Act

LBWF’s commitment to being transparent again in question as campaigner finds c.£500,000 unaccounted for in audit documents signed off by the council’s senior leadership

February 5, 2026 Cllr. Grace Williams, Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Linzi Roberts-Egan, Local Government Transparency Code, Ombudsman

In recent years LBWF has repeatedly failed to uphold its responsibility to be open and transparent, even where this is required by the law. A few examples are illustrative (for further details see the links below). In 2020, the Information Commissioner’s Office took the almost unprecedented step of issuing LBWF with a Practice Recommendation because of its widespread non-compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. Four years later, LBWF was revealed to have blatantly ignored the mandatory requirements of the 2015 Local Government Transparency Code, legislation that was specifically designe... »

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LBWF repeatedly claims it is taking residents’ complaints seriously…but just as repeatedly fails to do so

November 18, 2025 Freedom of Information Act, Mark Hynes, Ombudsman

In the last few years, LBWF has repeatedly claimed that it is taking residents’ complaints seriously, and learning from them, explaining: ‘Complaints are an important way for an organisation to be accountable to the public, as well as providing valuable insights into organisational performance and the conduct of staff providing services to residents in order to drive improvement in service delivery’. Of course, many big corporates make similar noises, it’s become fashionable. Yet in this particular case, there is reason to be circumspect, ... »

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LBWF Director of Governance and Law Mark Hynes gets knocked back by the Information Commissioner, and is caught out muddling evidence, while council resources drain away

August 6, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, Mark Hynes

This blog has periodically highlighted the slipshod way that LBWF administers its information services, and the waste of time and public money which often ensues. In the last couple of years, LBWF Director of Governance and Law, Mark Hynes, who is also Data Protection Officer, together with LBWF CEO, Linzi Roberts-Egan, have each promised reviews and improvements, but as a new case again shows, in reality little has changed. In February 2024, local commentator, Michelle Edwards, who authors the Anything BUT Countryside & Waltham Forest Council Twitter/X feed, sent LBWF a Freedom ... »

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LBWF’s top law officer Mark Hynes blocks a question about asbestos in the Town Hall for six months, and then gets an almighty rocket from the Information Commissioner

June 26, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, Mark Hynes, Town Hall asbestos

During the early 2020s, I spent a good deal of time researching LBWF health and safety matters, especially those which followed on from its 2015 court conviction for exposing staff and contractors to deadly asbestos dust in the Town Hall basement. Amongst other things, I discovered a worrying incident that had occurred in 2020. In early January of that year, contractors were drilling in the Town Hall basement, when dust suddenly started spiralling up into the floors above, setting off the fire alarms. Given the recent history, staff understandingly worried that the dust might contain asbestos ... »

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Walthamstow community activist Charlie Edwards’ court case shows that, though LBWF has a legal duty to release to each resident the personal information it holds about them, it is still obstructive

February 9, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

Some months ago, Walthamstow community activist Charlie Edwards lodged a claim for damages against LBWF because of the way it had handled a request for the personal information which it held about him, what’s known as a Subject Access Request (SAR), and earlier this week his case was heard at the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch County Court. The hearing started on a comical note.  LBWF was represented by barrister Douglas Scott of Six Pump Court (which describes itself as ‘Recognised nationally and internationally as one of the UK’s leading sets of Chambers’) and, while waiting to start, Mr. S... »

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LBWF Chief Executive Linzi Roberts-Egan orders a review of how the council handles residents’ requests for information, but the omens are not encouraging

January 24, 2024 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

In a recent e-mail, LBWF Chief Executive Linzi Roberts-Egan tells me: ‘We are currently reviewing our FOI [Freedom of Information Act] and SAR [Subject Access Request] processes to ensure they are as effective and efficient as possible and that the errors identified in dealing with your FOI and SAR will be avoided in the future’. If this review is meaningful, then it will be welcomed. But as is always the case with LBWF, it is advisable to be cautious, because as the pertinent history indicates, fine words are one thing, fine actions quite another. To start with, it is notable that the designa... »

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LBWF, the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act: the obstruction and harassment of residents asking lawful questions continues

November 23, 2023 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin, Mark Hynes

In the past few years, this blog has repeatedly revealed that LBWF obstructs local residents using the Freedom of Information Act (FIA) and the Data Protection Act when they are judged to be broaching issues that the Labour leadership considers controversial or likely to damage its reputation. A new case confirms that this disreputable trend continues, and is suggestive, too, about whether LBWF’s Director of Governance and Law, Mark Hynes, who is also Data Protection Officer, has any culpability.  The story can be summarised as follows. During the summer of 2023, I discovered that between... »

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LBWF and information requests: a new case shows that despite past official reprimands, Information Officer Mark Hynes’ service is still casually impeding transparency

September 12, 2023 Freedom of Information Act

As this blog has documented, LBWF’s past history of handling information requests is chequered, with some residents finding their inquiries thwarted by delays, illegitimate evasions, and ignorance of the legal framework, to the extent that the Information Commissioner’s Office periodically has had to intervene. All that is regrettable, but a new case suggests that obfuscation has not just continued, but become bolder. In October 2022, the Leader, Cllr. Grace Williams, told me that if I kept asking questions about Town Hall asbestos failures, she might invoke the Council’s Unreas... »

Waltham Forest council is the sixth most complained about in all of England

December 27, 2022 Freedom of Information Act, LBWF spin

Over recent years, LBWF has incessantly boasted about its achievements, all the while stressing that it prioritises ‘listening’, and is on the side of residents, or as one past Leader was fond of saying, ‘our people’. But now the truth is out. For a survey by claims.co.uk, which uses official data for 2016-22, reveals that LBWF is the sixth most complained about council, not just in London, but in the whole of England. The details are appended. In normal organisations, such humiliation would be seen as mortifying, and provoke some prolonged soul-searching. Here, in the borough, the precedent i... »

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Leytonstone cartoonist Woox on LBWF and the Freedom of Information Act

October 3, 2022 Freedom of Information Act, Woox

(Reproduced by kind permission of Woox) »

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