Too much freedom?

I know how frustrating “An FoI officer’s lot” (30 January) can be. But a freedom of information request to universities to find out how many FoI requests they had received is hardly demanding, assuming that universities keep records of requests and responses. But some institutions turned down the request stating exemptions for the excessive cost or time it would take, and 40 per cent of those contacted by Times Higher Education did not respond at all within the statutory 20 days. The lack of response may seem unimportant in itself, but it does seem like a symptom of a bigger problem, as clearly articulated in the article.

Ray Stoneham
University of Greenwich