Test results for Freedom of Information Act request - make one

Here is the table of test results for this task. The score on each row is out of a possible total of 20, and the importance column is a rating of 1-5 according to how important testers considered being able to complete this task was.

Filter within results: or click headings to sort.

CouncilNavigationA-ZGoogleSite searchScoreTestsImportance
Birmingham City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy205
Birmingham City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy53
Birmingham City CouncilVery easyDifficultDifficult35
Blackburn with Darwen CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy123
Bracknell Forest CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy123
Carlisle City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Cheshire East CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Cheshire East CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
City of Edinburgh CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy185
City of LondonEasyVery easyEasy125
Coventry City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy185
Coventry City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Dudley Metropolitan Borough CouncilVery easyGave upGave up-93
Greater London AuthorityVery easyVery easyVery easy53
Leeds City CouncilGave upVery easyVery easy103
Leicester City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy125
Liverpool City CouncilDifficultEasyDifficult63
London Borough of LewishamVery easyVery easyVery easy160
Manchester City CouncilVery easyVery easyDifficult113
Newcastle City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy183
Northamptonshire County CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy203
Plymouth City CouncilVery easyEasyEasy73
Ribble Valley Borough CouncilDifficultDifficultDifficult45
Salford City CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy183
Wandsworth CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy105
Wandsworth CouncilVery easyGave upDifficult33
West Lindsey District CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy33
Wirral CouncilVery easyVery easyVery easy183

Specific comments made about this task

Birmingham City Council - 2017-01-12
Finding the form was easy, but the actual form itself was awful.

Carlisle City Council - 2014-04-14
Easy to find comtact details to request an FOI.

City of Edinburgh Council - 2014-02-12
Adopting the UK-standard wording 'Freedom of Information' on the navigation rather than their own 'Access to information' would have made this easier.

City of London - 2014-03-03
The online transactions for FOI has a lot of mandatory fields that are completely unnecessary. For example the mandatory selection of titles such as Revereand, Lord and Lady. "Email address (if you would like us to use this)" is perplexing because as a user, I'm not sure what you mean by "if you would like us to use this". I'm assuming about using the email address I've provided to get back in touch with me, otherwise, why else would I be giving this to you? Form uncompleted. I couldn't get to the next screen, using Chrome and it wiped my entry details and took me back to the first screen.This online transaction was not linked to this page https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/about-the-city/how-we-work/access-to-information/Pages/default.aspx which in itself is misleading as it should really by 'Freedom of information' a better known term than 'Access to information'. The A-Z was easy enough but the title of the page was a bit confusing "How far is the City of London subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000?" The readability was hard going, complex and too many pages. The word information is used too much and is very vague.

Coventry City Council - 2014-02-06
This was very easy and really well structured. I am sure other users would be able to locate it really quick as the webpage is well organised and the headings are really clear so it was easy ti distinguish between each section. Overall really good and I hadn't encountered or experienced any problems so far.

Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council - 2018-08-28
The page I navigated to had information on it about the various forms of FoI, but I couldn't find any links to actually make a request on the page.

Leicester City Council - 2014-02-20
Good online process

Liverpool City Council - 2015-01-14
It's easy to find information on FOI, but I couldn't find an online form to enable me to make a request online. I found a telephone number to call and an email address.

Manchester City Council - 2014-02-14
Internal search wasn't so good - 'freedom of information request' gave me a useful result which was some way down the list, whilst 'foi request' gave me a screenful of .pdfs.

Ribble Valley Borough Council - 2014-06-30
Was very difficult to find who I should make the request to - eventually got pushed to Lancashire county council pages. messy and unclear.

West Lindsey District Council - 2015-08-25
Same as A.S.B report