BUSINESSES have been accused of “abusing” the council’s dwindling resources by using public information for commercial gain.

The claims come as the Chronicle can reveal around one in four Freedom of Information requests submitted to Reading Borough Council came from private companies.

On an almost daily basis officers are set to work digging for data at the council tax-payer’s expense – with much of what is found either being sold on or used to target their business.

Regular requests for the price of expiring contracts and the contact details of the staff in charge of renewing them are costing the authority potentially tens of thousands of pounds each year.

Other queries involve building regulations or business rates breakdowns which are then sold on to clients.

Leader of the council Cllr Jo Lovelock said: “We are concerned at the increase in the number of commercial enquiries which is not what the Freedom of Information Act is intended to do.

“It should be about a transparent government for members of the public, not for commercial interests.

“It costs a lot of money for us to trawl through and with our dwindling resources we do not have the staff available to be spent on those sorts of things.

“I would personally like to see that act amended so that it does what it says, so that local government can be transparent.

“Some people are abusing it and that is not what it is for - It should be to ensure that the genuine interests of the public to know what is going on in local government.”

The Freedom of Information Act came into force in 2005 and allows anyone to requests details about public bodies and the work they do.

Each query is processed separately and must be completed within 20 working days for free unless it breaches one of the act’s exemptions or would take more than 18 hours’ work.

A council spokesman added: “An increasing number of FOI’s received are from commercial operations who seek information for commercial purposes.

“Of the 363 FOI’s requests received by the council in the first three months of this calendar year, officers estimate that at least one quarter fit into this category.

“The information is provided for free as part of the FOI response, but it is generally used by companies who then charge clients for the information.

“The council also receives regular requests for information on the value of external contracts, when they are due to expire and the contact details of the officer in charge of the contract. This is particularly prevalent in the IT sector.

“At a time of significantly reduced resources, commercial FOI requests of this type can have a disproportionate impact on resources.”

Total FOI requests received:

2012: 752

2013: 994

2014: 1308

2015: 1290

2016: 363 (first quarter of calendar year)