Wandsworth Council has failed to provide basic information about a troubled AI advice system – including how much it paid, how the contract was awarded, and how people’s highly personal data is being protected.
On 1 April, the council responded to a complaint we filed over excessive delays in providing answers to basic questions about its adult carer system: “We are currently still waiting to receive the information that you have requested.” It was not an April Fools.
Putney.news reporter Salem Abu-Zayed asked the council back in December 2025 for its contracts with Tovie AI Ltd, what it had paid the company, how the supplier was chosen, and what data protection checks had been carried out. The legal deadline for a response was 16 January. The request is now more than two and a half months overdue.
We reported in December that the system produced incoherent and inaccurate responses to vulnerable people seeking help. Wandsworth refused to answer questions about what it says is a pilot. We then requested details about how the contract was awarded and how much it had cost.
Around 18,000 people in Wandsworth provide unpaid care for a partner, family member, friend or neighbour. The AI system gives them advice and helps them find support.
When the council launched the service in December 2025, its own press release quoted Tovie AI chief executive Joshua Kaiser saying the work “builds on our earlier collaborations with Wandsworth.” We have also asked what those earlier collaborations were and what the council paid for them. The council has failed to answer that question too.
Councils are legally obliged to respond to Freedom of Information requests with 20 days. Last month, with an answer more than 50 working days late, and with no indication from the council that the issues had been fixed, we filed a complaint.
In its response, the council apologised, provided no new information and said it would “continue to chase” its own departments for basic information.
