The U.S. Department of Defense, whose FOIA operations are among the busiest in the government, has released its annual FOIA report for fiscal year 2022. Here are the highlights:

• Received 54,004 requests, a 2.2 percent increase from FY 2021, when it received 52,805 requests.

• Processed 52,222 requests, a 3 percent increase from FY 2021, when it processed 50,703 requests.

• Received 1,252 appeals, a 15.8 percent increase from FY 2021, when it received 1,081 appeals

• Processed 1,257 appeals, a 14.7 percent increase from FY 2021, when it processed 1,095 appeals.

• Backlogged requests were 18,567 at end of FY 2022, compared to 17,597 backlogged requests at the end of FY 2021, a 5.5 percent increase.

• Backlogged appeals stood at 862 at the end of FY 2022, compared to 891 backlogged appeals at the end of FY 2021, a 3.2 percent decrease.

• For processed perfected requests, the overall department response time was an average of 39.6 days for “simple” requests and 271.3 days for “complex” requests.

• Processing costs were $94 million and litigation costs were $4.58 million, whereas in FY 2021 the department incurred $102.5 million in processing costs and $2.7 million in litigation costs.

• Fees collected for processing requests amounted to $108,275, representing only one-twelfth of one percent of total costs.

• And last but not least, DOD noted on its report’s cover page how much it cost the Department to prepare the report: $81,000 versus $158,000 in FY 2021.