MID Devon District Council (MDDC) has yet again cancelled a meeting of the Scrutiny Committee – March 16, 2026. No doubt there was nothing requiring their attention and so there was no point in holding a meeting.

The Liberal Democrat Administration dominate the committee and insist on holding the Chair so there is little surprise that little or nothing gets scrutinised and the meetings can be cancelled.

The suggestion has been made on more than one occasion that they are ‘marking their own homework’ but they do not even seem to be doing that.

At the February 2026 meeting three members of the public asked questions on agenda item 8 – Freedom of Information. Answers were given 10 working days later and a full record is on the MDDC Website.

To get a flavour of the way Scrutiny is provided just consider the following questions and the answers given by the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee.

Question: It is noted that only 52.9% of the requests received ‘Full Disclosure’. Are members of this Committee not interested as to why this is?

Answer: The committee feels the current quarterly monitoring provides adequate oversight.

Question: I note that there is a heading ‘ICO Individual Complainants’. What is the purpose of this heading?

Answer: The heading is intended to identify complaints made by individual members of the public and to assist the Committee in distinguishing isolated cases from matters that may indicate wider dissatisfaction.

Question: A Member FOI briefing presentation referenced 3 persons as “high volume requesters”. Am I one of those persons?

Answer: It is not appropriate for the committee to identify members of the public making requests.

Question: Will Scrutiny Committee ask that figures for all categories of requests and responses are included in future ‘Dashboard’ reports?

Answer: No.

Question: I read the summary of the Tribunal Decision in the report. I do agree with the conclusion, in paragraph 4.2, that the decision “reinforces the importance of transparency” - but I believe that improvements in this area will require a ‘mind-shift’ for some officers and Members. I am aware that some Members attended the FOI Briefing/Training Session in December 2025, but a lot did not. Will Scrutiny Committee please endorse the conclusion set out in paragraph 4.2 of the report and ask that additional officer and Member training be undertaken to assist in achieving this?

Answer: No.

The delays caused by MDDC prevarication in responding to Freedom of Information Requests from the public further brought into question as to what Scrutiny, if any was carried out.

As a former Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee I can justifiably question the lack of Scrutiny by this administration. I can give more examples of obfuscation and prevarication rather than carrying out the Scrutiny function properly when space permits.

Barry G J Warren

Cherry Close

Willand