One advantage of being involved in a number of different public organisations is that I am quick to spot a common theme that is emerging, one that is creating a serious threat to organisations that exist to support us all.

The administrators at the various authorities have all been telling me that they have had to spend increasing amounts of time dealing with A.I. generated correspondence, including Freedom of Information (F.O.I.) requests, to the point that it is becoming an unsustainable burden.

A lot of FOI requests are of questionable value and it is sometimes difficult to determine which of the hundreds are from people with legitimate questions who have good reasons for asking, and which are simply vexatious… ranging from silly games playing to foreign powers seeking to undermine our democratic system.

Unfortunately, public bodies usually don’t get to choose which FOI requests they want to respond to, it often involves a lot of work pulling together all of the information requested and they often cannot charge for so doing. Even when they do respond, it often doesn’t end there. The requester comes up with another A.I. generated list of further demands.

I am generally supportive of public bodies being open and transparent but it begs the question of how to deal with a situation in which the system is clearly being abused by bad people ?

I think Government needs to urgently reconsider the law as it stands and how public bodies can meet reasonable requests without being subject to wave after wave of enquiries that are being generated with the express intent to waste time and money, undermining the very public services we all value.