A freedom of information investigation by printing supplier Cartridge People has revealed just how bad some councils are at keeping records. Originally asking authorities information relating to printer ink spend, one council stated it would need to review individual payments - and would take around five years to do so. As a result, this would have cost the taxpayer £234,000
*Key stats:*
Our investigation involved sending freedom of information (FOI) requests to 93 councils (around a fifth of all principal councils in the UK). It revealed huge inefficiencies in how councils keep records. For example:
- 22% of councils approached failed to respond to the FOI request within the legally-required time limit.
- 56% of councils - for a variety of reasons - couldn’t give us specific figures related to printer ink spend. 46% of councils had no idea what type of ink they used.
Although one council said they could find this...
