Introduction to WhatDoTheyKnow

What is WhatDoTheyKnow for?

To help you find out inside information about what the UK government is doing.

How does the site work?

You choose the public authority that you would like information from, then write a brief note describing what you want to know. We then send your request to the public authority. Any response they make is automatically published on the website for you and anyone else to find and read.

Why would I bother to do this?

You pay taxes, and then government does things with the money. All sorts of things that affect your life, from healthcare through to national defence. Some it does badly, some it does well. The more we find out about how government works, the better able we are to make suggestions to improve the things that are done badly, and to celebrate the things that are done well.

Why would the public authority bother to reply?

Under Freedom of Information (FOI) law, they have to respond.

Who makes it?

WhatDoTheyKnow is made by mySociety, and was initially funded by the JRSST Charitable Trust. mySociety is a project of the registered charity UK Citizens Online Democracy. If you like what we're doing, then you can make a donation.

Making requests

You're missing the public authority that I want to request from!

Please contact us with the name of the public authority and, if you can find it, their contact email address for Freedom of Information requests. If you'd like to help add a whole category of public authority to the site, for example all primary care trusts or all schools, then please edit this shared spreadsheet (Google account required).

How quickly will I get a response?

By law public authorities must respond within 20 days, excluding weekends and any UK bank holidays. The date that the response is due by is shown on the page for your request. You will be emailed if this date goes by without a response, so you can send the public authority another note to hurry them up.

What if I'm not satisfied with the response?

If you didn't get the information you asked for, or you didn't get it in time, then read our page 'Unhappy about the response you got?'.

Can you tell me more of the nitty gritty about the process of making requests?

Have a look at the access to official information pages on the Information Commisioner's website.

Can I request information about myself?

Not using this site. Requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow are public, made under the Freedom of Information Act, and cannot help you find information about a private individual. If you would like to know what information a public authority holds about yourself, you should make a "Subject Access Request" in private using Data Protection law. The leaflet Subject Access - A guide for data subjects (on the Information Commisioner's website) explains how to do this.

I'd like to keep my request secret! (At least until I publish my story)

WhatDoTheyKnow is currently only designed for public requests. All responses that we receive are automatically published on the website for anyone to read. You should contact the public authority directly if you would like to make a request in private. If you're interested in buying a system which helps you manage FOI requests in secret, then contact us.

Privacy policy

Who gets to see my email address?

We will not disclose your email address to anyone, including the public authority you are sending a request to, unless we are obliged to by law, or you ask us to. If you send a message to another user on the site, then it will reveal your email address to them. You will be told that this is going to happen.

Will you send nasty, brutish spam to my email address?

Nope. After you sign up to WhatDoTheyKnow we will only send you emails about the site or related mySociety services. We will never give or sell your email addresses to anyone else, unless we are obliged to by law, or you ask us to.

Why will my name appear publically on the site?

It means that someone researching the same area can get in touch with you, and maybe give you more information or ideas relating to your request. Also, we're going to publish the response with the name of the civil servant who wrote it, so it seems only fair that your name should be public too! Therefore, we encourage you to use your real name, but you may use a pseudonym if you would like to be anonymous.

So I can make an FOI request using a pseudonym?

Yes, you can. It is good practice for the public authority to reply to such a request, except in special circumstances such as if they suspect you of making vexatious requests. See Freedom of Information Good Practice Guidance No 6 for details. You should refer to this if a public authority attempts to refuse a request because you used a pseudonym. Saying that, you can avoid the problem by simply making your pseudonym look like a real person's name, as there is no general obligation to prove your identity.

Why does the list of things that I'm tracking appear publically on the site?

This helps you find others who are researching the same area of government, so you can form groups to investigate or campaign together. It also helps us show requests which are related to other requests. If you've ever used a "social bookmarking" website such as Delicious, Digg or reddit, think of it like that.

Credit where credit is due

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow?

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)! Heather Brook (vampy!) has been pushing the idea of a UK FOI archive for years now. Both Phil Rodgers and Francis Irving entered it in a mySociety competition for ideas for public interest websites to build. It won, and then Chris Lightfoot (RIP :() thought up the wheeze of intercepting email responses to requests and automatically publishing them. Tom Steinberg managed to get the cash to pay for the site out of a dead chocolate mogul, so that Francis Irving, Angie Ahl, Tommy Martin, Louise Crow, Matthew Somerville and Tom Steinberg could do the complex mixture of design and coding to build what you see today. Thanks particularly to Julian Todd (great blog!), Francis Davey, and Etienne Pollard for using the site early on and giving feedback (and/or legal advice!), and also to all our other users and testers. Lots of people have been looking up FOI email addresses, and a few volunteering to administrate the site - most especially Adam McGreggor, Alex Skene and John Cross. Finally we couldn't do any of this without those crazy people who volunteer, amongst many other things, to do the accounts and fill in our VAT return. You're all stars.