mySociety has completed a second workshop as part of its Freedom of Information network initiative and released initial findings. The civic tech organisation is systematically documenting how civil society actors work to strengthen information access rights in practice.
The workshop programme targets a specific problem: government transparency obligations often fail in implementation. Participants identified concrete obstacles citizens and organisations face when requesting public information. These barriers extend beyond legislative gaps into day-to-day administrative practice.
For government digital services and transparency teams, the research signals where FOI processes break down operationally. Departments relying on manual workflows or legacy systems typically struggle most. The findings provide evidence-based benchmarks for improving internal request handling and disclosure procedures.
mySociety's approach treats FOI not as a legal checkbox but as a service delivery challenge. The network model enables participating bodies to exchange lessons learned and identify which procedural changes yield measurable improvements in access times and response quality.
