After years of delays, Labour-run Ealing Council has now introduced a Freedom of Information (FOI) search tool on its website, allowing residents to browse previous questions that have been asked.
But the long-anticipated feature has faced criticism over its implementation, with users describing the AI-powered system as poorly designed, difficult to navigate and currently only shows FOI requests from 2024 onwards.
Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of Ealing Liberal Democrats has challenged the council over the implementation of the FOI search tool and the delays surrounding it. He said: “Why has this simple request taken so long when other councils have had similar logs up and running for years.”
Ealing Council told EALING.NEWS that its AI tool, which appears on a dedicated FOI page at foi.ealing.gov.uk, was “set up for users to search information on a range of matters, including the content of the council’s website and questions that may have been previously requested via an FOI. It does not serve as a log of all FOI requests.”
The council added that there are no plans at the moment to implement a full FOI log for residents to access. It also confirmed that it is still adding 2024 FOI requests. A spokesperson said: “It is currently displaying from 2024 but we are still in the process of adding requests so when we have completed all of 2024, we will begin to add those from 2023.”
The move to start showing previous FOI requests follows a 2023 challenge from Ealing Liberal Democrats which revealed that Ealing Council is falling behind other councils including Harrow, Barnet, Bexley and Tower Hamlets which make it easier to search and show results from previous years.
These London councils as well as others across the country have a log that lists and shows details of previous FOI requests made. Residents of these councils can search as well as view lists by date with some also showing results by category of request.
As well as not being as friendly to use as other councils, the results on many recent requests don’t show the date when the council replied to the FOI request on its PDF download.
Disclosure logs are not mandatory to provide but it is considered good practice to offer it and many local and central government departments have them for members of the public to access online.
One local resident contacted EALING.NEWS about the FOI search page on Ealing Council’s website. They said: “The council has had years to implement a search of FOI requests just like other councils do. This one is poorly designed and implemented. Where are all the previous years and why is it so unfriendly to use? It really is not fit for purpose. The council needs to do something better.”
Councillor Gary Malcolm, leader of Ealing Liberal Democrats said: “It is two years since I first asked for an FOI public log and received the response that it would be available three months later. Why has this simple request taken so long when other councils have had similar logs up and running for years. We welcome this update to the website although still quite basic in its use of AI.”
An Ealing Council spokesperson told EALING.NEWS: “Our AI-powered public information database was set up for users to search information on a range of matters, including the content of the council’s website and questions that may have been previously requested via an FOI. It does not serve as a log of all FOI requests.
“The database is a search engine that efficiently finds information without the user having to scroll through requests. How specific results are displayed depends on the way the question is phrased due to AI identifying search terms. The pool of information is continually being updated.
“Currently FOI requests show the date that the FOI was received, but not the date that they are replied to. We will ensure this detail is included in future published FOI requests.”
 search tool on its website, allowing residents to browse previous questions that have been asked to the council.){kind=link}