Making requests #

I’m not sure which authority to make my request to, how can I find out? #

Understanding the structure of the government and finding the information you need can be tricky. Here are a few tips to help you:

• Browse or search WhatDoTheyKnow for similar requests to yours. Check who they were sent to, and if they were successful. If they were, that's probably the right authority for your request.
• It’s always a good idea to double-check. When you’ve found an authority that might have the information, use the “home page” link on the right hand side of their page. This will take you to their website where you can see what their responsibilities are.
• You can also contact the authority by phone or email to ask if they have the kind of information you’re looking for.
• But don’t worry too much about finding the right authority. If you make a mistake, they should tell you who to contact instead.
• If you have a tricky case, please contact us. We have a great team of volunteer administrators who are ready to help you.

You’re missing the public authority that I want to ask! #

Please contact us with the name of the public authority and, if possible, their contact email address for Freedom of Information requests.

If you’d like to help add a whole category of public authorities to the site, we’d love to hear from you.

Why do you include some authorities that aren’t formally subject to laws on access to public information? #

WhatDoTheyKnow not only provides a simple way to make Freedom of Information requests, but also actively campaigns to expand the scope of Freedom of Information law to cover more public bodies.

Via the site, you can make requests for information to a range of organisations:

• Those subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
• Those subject to The Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). This group is broader and includes bodies subject to FOI, as well as other organizations with a public role, such as water companies.
• Those subject to access to information law in Scotland.
• Organisations which voluntarily comply with FOI even though they don't have to.
• Those which are not subject to the Act but which we think should be, for example because they have significant public responsibilities. These include those who enforce rules, choose people for public roles, or give out a lot of public money.

Why must I keep my request focused? #

A Freedom of Information request is a request for information or data. If the authority has the information, the law usually requires them to share it.

You can get a quicker response by making your request short, clear, and to the point. Only include what you really need. This helps the authority to know exactly what you're asking for.

You should not include:

• arguments about your cause
• statements that could defame or insult others
• questions or requests for opinions, instead of asking for specific information

The Freedom of Information process isn't for general discussion, sharing background details, or debating what is right and wrong. It just lets you ask for documents or data that the authority has.

To get better results, set out your request properly. Asking "why are you doing X?" or "how do you feel about the results of doing X?" might not be seen as a valid FOI request. Instead, you could ask for "copies of all policies and procedures regarding X." If you include extra information, we may have to remove your request to avoid legal issues, which is not good for you or us.

How can I make responsible and effective FOI requests? #

We want to help you make good FOI requests because it's better for everyone.

• It’s better for you, because you get faster, higher quality results.
• It’s better for the often overloaded staff who receive your requests, because it makes their jobs easier.
• It’s better for us, because we rely on the goodwill of our users and of authorities to be able to keep the site running.
• It’s better for our rights to information as a whole. If requests become too much of a burden, there’s a greater chance of laws being passed that restrict our access to information in the future.

Here are the ways you can optimise your request:

• Don't make requests for information which is already published: Search WhatDoTheyKnow and the public authority's website to check the material you want isn't already available.
• Send it to the right place: Make sure your request goes to the right place. We know this can be hard. If you're not sure, send your request to the body you think is most likely to have the information. They should help guide you to the right place if you get it wrong. If you need more help, you can ask the WhatDoTheyKnow team for help.

• Send targeted requests: You might want to ask all local councils or every public body in the country for information, but it's good to think about it first. These bulk requests can give you a lot of data and take up a lot of time for the staff to handle.

  Will you actually be able to handle that amount of data? Think about if you could get the information you need by asking a few authorities instead. For example, you could ask your local council and a few others that are similar.

  Is the information may be held centrally by a Government department. If it is you might be able to make a single request, rather than a large number.

• Word your question carefully: It helps to say what format you want the response in and ask for exactly the data you need. If you don't, different places might give you answers in different formats, making it hard to compare them.
• Avoid acronyms and special terms: Acronyms and special terms that make sense to you might not be clear to the people reading your request. It's better to spell out acronyms and explain technical terms. This makes sure everything is easy to understand.
• Fine-tune your request: Make the right request the first time so you won't need to ask for more information later. Think about what you will do with the information and if you need extra details to understand it better. For example, if you ask for the number of potholes fixed this year, it might help to also ask for the numbers from past years to compare.
• But don’t ask for too much: One of the reasons that authorities can turn down a request is that it would take too long and cost too much to answer. Only ask for what you need. Limiting your request to information for a specific time period is a good approach. It can stop your request being refused for being too broad.
• Be polite: The FOI officer is the person who helps you get the information you need. They are like your helper inside the public body and usually want to assist you. They will be even more willing to help if you treat them politely.
• Remember it’s all going online: Don't include any defamatory claims in your request, such as allegations. This causes serious problems for us. It can also put you at risk of committing libel. Your request could be deemed vexatious, which means that you won’t receive a response.
• Consider asking for proactive publication: To avoid making the same request in the future, you can ask the public body to start publishing the information on their website. Sometimes, the law around datasets applies, public bodies have to regularly update and share the information.

Here’s some further reading with more detail on how to make effective FOI requests:

• FOI Man’s Ten Top Tips
• The Scottish Information Commissioner’s Tips for requesting information.

Can I use your site for campaigning? #

Freedom of Information is a powerful tool if you need information to support an argument or campaign.

• Although we can’t help you run your campaign, we encourage you to use WhatDoTheyKnow to get the information you need. You are welcome to link to your campaign from this site in an annotation to your request (you can make annotations after submitting the request).
• Some campaigners have asked their supporters to make requests for information via WhatDoTheyKnow using the pre-written request tool. There is guidance on how to create pre-written requests here. You can use annotations to link between requests; this is useful if your request builds on a response that someone else receives, or is for more a more up to date version of information which has already been released.
• You may find it useful to contact others who are campaigning on the same issue as you are. You can send messages to other users. Click on any user’s name to see their profile, and use the link to contact them.

Does it cost me anything to make a request? #

Making an FOI request is nearly always free.

Authorities often include standardised text in their acknowledgement messages saying they “may” charge a fee, which, understandably, can be a little frightening. Ignore such notices. Most of the things that authorities can charge for don’t apply to requests made via WhatDoTheyKnow. You will hardly ever be asked for money. If you are, you would always have the chance to say no. A public body can only charge you if you have agreed in advance to pay. See more details from the ICO.

Sometimes an authority will refuse your request, saying that it would cost them too much to answer. The limits are £600 (for central government) or £450 (for all other public authorities). At this point you can refine your request: for example, it could be cheaper for an authority to tell you the amount spent on advertising in the past year than in the past ten years.

Will I get the information in the format I want? #

If you ask for the information to be provided in a particular format, the public authority has to do so, so long as it is reasonably practicable. If you want to receive the information in a specific format, you must ask for this when you make your request.

You might want to explicitly request data in a reusable format such as a .csv file. This helps prevent the response being provided as images, or screenshots of spreadsheets that are harder to extract data from.

There’s no need to explicitly request a response ‘via email’. By making your request via WhatDoTheyKnow, you are already making this clear.

How quickly will I get a response? #

Public authorities must respond “promptly” to requests. This means that you should expect a response as soon as is practical for the authority to answer, taking into consideration the amount of information you have asked for, their workload, and the staff available to deal with your request.

The law states that they must respond within 20 working days, with a couple of exceptions: if you had to clarify your request, or your request is to a school, or in one or two other scenarios, then they may have more time — you can read more about timescales here.

We will automatically send you an email reminder if you don’t get a response within the time limit. You can then send the public authority a message to prompt them to reply.

What if I don’t get a response? #

You can read more about what to do if you don't get a response at all on our dedicated help page.

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?’.

It says I can’t re-use the information I got! #

Authorities often add legal boilerplate citing the “Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005”. They also sometimes put copyright notices on material.

If the information you have received is Crown Copyright then you are able to reproduce it under the Open Government Licence but there are some conditions — check that link for more details.

Can you get into the details about the process of making requests? #

Have a look at the access to official information pages on the Information Commissioner’s website.

If you’re requesting information from a Scottish public authority, the process is very similar, although there are differences around time limits for compliance. See the Scottish Information Commissioner’s guidance for details.

Can I request information about myself? #

No. If you want to access information that a public authority holds about you, you need to make a Subject Access request in private.

We don't allow subject access requests to be made using WhatDoTheyKnow. The Information Commissioner’s website provides advice on how to make a Subject Access request.

If you see that somebody has included personal information in a request, please contact us so that we can remove it.

Can I request information about a deceased person? #

When seeking information relating to a deceased person please consider if a Freedom of Information request is appropriate. Think about the potential impacts of making the request, and receiving a response, in public.

WhatDoTheyKnow is only for making requests for information which anyone could expect to be given. There are laws, and procedures, which give some people special rights to information, such as the Access to Health Records Act 1990 and the Ministry of Defence procedure for accessing records of deceased service personnel. If you have a special right to the information, your request should be made directly, and not via WhatDoTheyKnow.

If you think there is information about a deceased person that we should remove, please refer to our policy , and contact us with any queries.

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

WhatDoTheyKnow is currently designed for public requests. Almost all responses that we receive are automatically published on the website for anyone to read.

WhatDoTheyKnow^Pro is a service for journalists and campaigners that includes the ability to delay publication of your requests and responses. If you are a journalist, campaigner, activist, or someone else with a need to make requests for information which are initially private then find out more and get in touch.

Why can I only request information about the environment from some authorities? #

Some public authorities, such as Milford Haven Port Authority, don’t come under the Freedom of Information Act, but do come under another law called the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).

It’s a very similar law, so you make a request to them using WhatDoTheyKnow in just the same way as an FOI request. The only difference is that on the page where your write your request, it reminds you that you can only request “environmental information” and tells you what that means. It is quite broad.

You can ask for environmental information from other authorities. Just make a request as normal. The authority has a duty to work out what the right law is to reply under.

Can I make the same request to lots of authorities, e.g. all councils? #

This is possible, under some circumstances. There is a daily cap on the number of requests that can be using WhatDoTheyKnow. This is to help prevent spam. We would recommend sending a test version of your request to a few authorities. Their responses will help you improve the wording of your request.

If you are a journalist, activist, campaigner or someone else who would find it useful to have a tool enabling you to make requests to multiple bodies at the same time, then you might be interested in our WhatDoTheyKnow Pro service.

I made a request off the site, how do I upload it to the archive? #

WhatDoTheyKnow is an archive of requests made using our service. We don’t allow users to upload requests that were made by other means. We have no plans to add this feature in the future. This is because we can’t verify that responses received from outside of our system actually came from the authority. We want to make sure that all content on WhatDoTheyKnow is 100% verifiable.

How can I attach a file to my request? #

It is not possible to add attachments to requests made using WhatDoTheyKnow. You could upload the file to services such as flickr.com, Google Docs, or scribd.com and then provide a link in the body of your request. Where a location on map is required as part of a request, many online mapping services, such as Google Maps, allow you to share exact co-ordinates via a link.

If an authority has asked you to confirm your ID for a Freedom of Information request, it may not be good idea to share a link to a public file through WhatDoTheyKnow. If you do this, your ID will be available to anyone who views the site. We recommend contacting the authority directly. Please contact us if you need help to do this.

Do you have any advice for public sector whistleblowers? #

If you work for a public body and you know of information that the public should have access to, making a Freedom of Information request via WhatDoTheyKnow can be a good way to get it released. We’re happy for people to use our service under a pseudonym (although you should first read our advice on using pseudonyms).

Whistleblowers who want to keep their identity secret should take precautions such as not making their request from their workplace, and not using their work email address (it’s possible a court may order us to release user information we hold). Using a pre-paid mobile phone rather than an internet connection at home, or even drafting a request for someone else to send might be worth considering.

You may wish to consider setting up a new account for your whistleblowing request, as previous requests may help people to identify you. The UK charity Protect aims to make whistleblowing work for individuals, organisations and society and offers a free, confidential whistleblowing advice line. For EU citizens and residents the EU Human Rights Defenders Relocation Platform may be able to offer assistance. See also: Hints and Tips for Whistleblowing from Spy Blog

How do you moderate request annotations? #

Annotations on WhatDoTheyKnow are for helping other people to get the information they want, or, giving advice about the next steps they might take. We reserve the right to remove annotations that don’t fit into one of these categories.

Political discussions and personal opinions are not allowed in annotations. If you feel strongly that you need to provide background context, you may post a link to a suitable forum, blog post or campaign site elsewhere. Please see our House Rules for more information.

With limited administrative resources, we prioritise substantive FOI requests and responses. We spend less time on the moderation of annotations than of FOI requests, and the threshold for removal of annotations is relatively low.

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