Councils receive around 467,000 Freedom of Information (FOI) Act requests every year, nearly double the number compared to estimates in 2010, a new report has revealed.

E-democracy project mySociety found councils received 10 times the number of FOI requests than central government.

The report found compliance rates with the statutory 20 days deadline for replying are high in local government, with only a few isolated exceptions.

It also found one out of three councils had at least one FOI request they considered to be vexatious, with 9% having at least five in the past year.

Dr Ben Worthy, of Birkbeck College, said: ‘This report gives us a first comprehensive picture of what's happening with FOI at the local level.

'It shows that request numbers have indeed continued to grow and that local authority staff face a series of obstacles in dealing with requests.

‘Above all, it underlines the importance of FOI as a tool of local democracy.'