City of York Council has improved in the way it responds to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The council submitted a corporate governance team report to its audit and governance committee, on Wednesday, September 4.

It included information on the council's response to FOI requests, which has been a point of scrutiny in the past.

As The Press reported last year, the council said that it was responsible for 261 unanswered FOI requests, which accumulated over a 30 month period, which had been an "unacceptable failure".

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The corporate governance team report showed that in the full year spanning 2022-23, it had responded to 86 per cent of such requests - whilst having a legal obligation to respond to all.

Numbers then improved slightly to 89 per cent for the year 2023-24.

However, in the first quarter of 2024-25, the team had achieved a 98 per cent response rate.

"Whilst we are achieving a high percentage of responses being completed within the statutory timescales for FOI, EIRs and other information requests, it is important to remain vigilant about this," the report said.

They added that the improvement in responses had come despite a higher volume of requests. The team received a total of 588 requests for information from April 1 to June 30, 2024, up from 505 for the same period in the previous year.