The watchdog issued the notice after an increase in the number of complaints about the council taking too long to respond to freedom of information requests.
The council had a backlog of almost 300 applications in August, with 11 from last year.
When someone sends a written request to a public body, such as the council, the Freedom of Information Act sets out the steps they must take.
It is generally required to state whether it holds the information requested and, subject to exceptions, to send the information within 20 working days.
The enforcement notice said: “The age profile of the backlog shows that the delays are not limited to recent or isolated cases.
“The spreadsheet (of outstanding requests) listed 11 requests received in 2025, including requests backdated to April 2025, as well as a substantial number of requests received in the first half of 2026.”
The commissioner said the council has too few staff to deal with requests for information “but that permission has been given to recruit new staff and work overtime on past cases.”
ICO enforcement
Senior officials have also been monitoring progress, which, the Information Commissioner said, was a “very positive recent move”.
The enforcement notice requires the council to “publish on its website an action plan, supported by a lesson exercise that identifies the causes of delays in handling FoI requests and formalizes the measures it takes to reduce these delays”.
If the council does not comply with the notice, it can bring legal action in the High Court and “may be treated as having committed contempt of court”.
Green councilor Steve Davis, the leader of the opposition on the council, asked about FoI delays at a meeting of the full council in July.
He said that in the first quarter of 2025-26, almost three-quarters of cases, or 417 out of 561, received an answer within the legal deadline.
But the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – since renamed the Information Commission – said a compliance rate of under 90 per cent was “unsatisfactory”.
The council said it had received an average of 200 FoI requests per month and 75 Subject Access Requests (SAR) requests since the start of the current financial year in April.
A subject access request is made by someone asking an organization what information it holds about them and is governed by the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Labor councilor Jacob Allen, the council’s cabinet member for customer services, the public realm and local government, said there was a significant increase in the volume and complexity of requests.
The number of FoI requests was up 41 percent since 2023 and subject access requests increased by 136 percent.
He said: “We acknowledge the ICO’s enforcement notice and accept that the council has not met the required timescale to respond to some Right to Information requests.
“But we have already made significant progress, with 56 per cent of the backlog reviewed or cleared, additional capacity deployed and stronger monitoring arrangements in place.
“The ICO has acknowledged this progress, noting that the council has ‘made great strides in responding to overwhelming enquiries’.
“We have published an improvement plan, which has been shared with the ICO, which sets out the actions we are taking to strengthen our processes.
“Our focus is on meeting the requirements of the enforcement notice, clearing the backlog and ensuring we have stronger arrangements for the future.”