A request in among the rest
The clerk gets an email from a resident who wants 'all correspondence between the council and the developer about the field behind the school'. Another comes from a journalist asking for a list of all grants paid in the last three years. A third comes from a campaign group sending the same request to every council in the county, asking about spending on consultants.
The clerk knows these are information requests, and that there is a time limit. But the requests sit in the inbox with everything else. Finding the correspondence means searching the clerk's own email and asking councillors to search theirs. Nobody records what was sent in the end, or what was withheld and why. When a similar request comes a year later, the clerk starts again.
Why a small council struggles with requests
A larger council has an information team. A parish or town council has a clerk, possibly part time, who handles requests alongside everything else. The process is the same size for a small council, but there is no system to hold it.
- Requests are not always labelled as information requests by the person sending them.
- The due date is worked out by counting on a calendar.
- Information is spread across the clerk's email, councillors' email, paper files and the website.
- Decisions about what to release are not recorded with the request.
- Similar requests are answered from scratch each time.
What the gaps cost
Late responses lead to complaints, and a small council has little resource to handle them. Inconsistent answers to similar requests look bad. The clerk loses time searching for information the council has already released to someone else. And without a record of reasoning, the council cannot easily show how a decision was reached if it is questioned later.
What must be released, what can be withheld, and how deadlines are counted are legal matters. We do not advise on them. Your council follows its own policy and takes advice, and the log records what it decides.
A request log for the clerk
- Requests are forwarded to a dedicated address or logged from the clerk's inbox with one click. A form on the website can also accept requests.
- Each request gets a reference, the date received, the requester's details and the request text.
- The due date is calculated from the rule your council tells us to use, with reminders to the clerk before it, and the date can be adjusted if the clock is paused under your policy.
- Tasks can be sent to councillors to search their own records, with a link to upload what they find.
- The clerk records the response, the documents released and a note of anything withheld and the reason your council gave.
- Past requests are searchable, so similar ones can be answered consistently and published responses can be pointed to.
- A simple report shows requests received, answered on time and outstanding, which councillors may want to see.
| Record for each request | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Date received and due date | Deadlines are not counted by memory |
| Who searched and what they found | Evidence that a search was done |
| What was released | Consistency with later requests |
| Reasons for anything withheld | A record if the decision is questioned |
How a request is handled with the log
The developer correspondence request is logged the day it arrives, with the due date shown. The clerk sends a search task to the three councillors on the planning committee, who upload their emails through the link. The clerk reviews, takes advice where needed, sends the response and records it. The grants request is answered from the grants records, and the response is saved so the next similar request can use it.
If your council publishes information routinely, such as grants and payments, the log shows which requests could be answered by pointing to the website.
Is this how requests are handled now?
- Information requests sit in the clerk's inbox with other email.
- Due dates are counted on a calendar.
- Councillors are asked to search their email with no follow-up.
- There is no record of what was released or withheld.
- Similar requests are answered from scratch.