21:34, 07 Dec 2025Updated 21:37, 07 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
![\"General](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Image_20250304_175124_401jpeg.jpg\")
General view of Lisburn City and Castlereagh Council headquarters at Lagan Valley Island(Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n
A Northern Ireland council has gone against the grain by becoming the only local authority in the region without a functioning dedicated Freedom of Information (FOI) email address. Instead, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council<\/a> moved to an online form system for FOI requests almost two-and-a-half-years-ago \u2014 a lawful route, but one that comes with its own challenges. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows members of the public, including journalists, to obtain information from public authorities, promoting transparency and accountability at all levels of government.<\/p>\n The other ten councils in Northern Ireland still operate a clearly advertised FOI mailbox, while Lisburn<\/a> and Castlereagh City Council brought its previous FOI email practice to an end in August 2023. Belfast Live<\/a> contacted each council individually to confirm that they currently have a dedicated FOI email address.<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘Children were running behind the bus waving their arms’: Concerned parents speak out about ongoing Translink issues<\/a>READ MORE: Housing Rights 2025 conference provides a word of caution on the unaffordable rental market in NI<\/a><\/p>\n Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council have chosen to be an outlier despite guidance now provided<\/a> to Belfast Live from the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office stating that public authorities should give people the option to provide FOI requests via email. Guidance provided by the ICO, obtained by Belfast Live when the organisation was approached for comment, clearly states: \u201cDon\u2019t take down your email address.\u201d<\/p>\n The ICO further advises: \u201cCompletely phasing out email and other methods to rely exclusively on online forms would be a step backwards. You cannot force people to use it because it is your preferred method. You may also be unwittingly excluding people from exercising their right to access information.<\/p>\n A report from Age UK highlighted<\/a> that online-only services can exclude older people, so exclusively accepting requests through an online form is not appropriate.\u201d A spokesperson for Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council told Belfast Live: \u201cWe introduced a new equality-screened protocol and accompanying system for FOI in August 2023. As the system is the most efficient way for the Council to process FOIs, the email address was removed and is no longer the primary means of contact for FOI. \u201cShould someone be unable to use the online system, we can, and do, accept the FOI request in another format. Such requests would be logged by officers onto the system to enable it to progress. The ICO was made aware of the process and, in response to your query, the council has not received any decision notices or formal warnings regarding its FOI submission procedures. \u201cThe council has seen a 33% yearly increase in FOI requests received since the introduction of the online portal \u2014 however, as stated, should someone be unable to use this, we can, and do, accept the FOI request in another format.\u201d The spokesperson added that the FOI address is not regularly monitored and is no longer regarded as a primary means of submitting requests. They did not elaborate on what the other accepted FOI format is and said that if someone emails the former FOI address, they would receive an automated response.<\/p>\n This issue came to Belfast Live\u2019s attention when this journalist submitted an FOI request in October to Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council. No automated response was received at that stage, indicating the mailbox was no longer actively monitored, so the reporter waited the statutory 20 working days before sending a follow-up email. A timely response was received after the reminder.<\/p>\n The problem is that when someone searches online for \u201chow to make a FOI request for Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council,\u201d a suggestion to email an address appears prominently in search results before the online form. This is the same email address the council now says is no longer a viable route for FOI submissions. While the form is mentioned, with all other authorities in the region still using email as a major submission method, members of the public may not realise the difference, particularly if no immediate automated response is received.<\/p>\n When the ICO was asked if they were aware of any local authorities in Northern Ireland offering an online-only FOI form without an alternative email channel, it said: \u201cWe do not hold this information.\u201d With every other council in Northern Ireland still offering a direct FOI email route, Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council remain the exception. The situation has persisted for over two years, and Belfast Live has now asked the ICO whether it intends to assess the council\u2019s FOI arrangements following these findings.<\/p>\n Have you had issues securing an FOI request in Northern Ireland? Email Rob.Currell@reachplc.com<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage <\/strong>here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over two years ago the council ceased regular monitoring of its FOI email address Rob Currell GAU audience…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[83641,1144,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-618825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-lisburn-city-and-castlereagh-district-council","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-politics","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115680708625779438","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_screenshotfoiresponse.jpg\")
The message applicants should receive back if they try and send an email to the council’s FOI address(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n![\"Google](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_foiscreenshotgoogle.jpg\")
Google advice on how to send a FOI request to Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council still shows the email address(Image: Google)<\/p>\n