Madrid, 22 April 2015 – Levels of administrative silence remained high in Spain in 2014, in the year running up to Europe’s newest transparency law coming into force, according to a report published by civil society organisations Access Info Europe and Civio.
Out of the 314 requests for information sent via the Tuderechoasaber.es request platform in 2014, 42% did not receive any reply from Spanish institutions or public bodies. This is a drop from the 57% recorded in 2013.
Satisfactory responses to requests rose marginally from 12.7% to 18.5%, which remains an unacceptably low level in a country where the government has made numerous assertions that it is improving transparency.
National institutions were least likely to respond, with Spain’s Ministry of the Interior yet to reply to any of the requests sent via the Spanish request platform in 2013 and 2014.
The Spanish transparency law entered into force on 10 December 2014.
“This data shows the serious challenge facing the new access to information law and the huge cultural shift needed to ensure its effective implementation,” said Helen Darbishire, Executive Director of Access Info Europe.
Spain is a member of the Open Government Partnership. Increasing transparency and implementing an access to information law has been part of Spain’s OGP national action plan since 2012.