A Resident's Guide to Freedom of Information Requests

What You Can Ask For — and Who Holds It

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 gives anyone the right to ask a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for recorded information it holds. Scotland has its own, broadly similar, regime. You do not need to be a journalist, a councillor or even a resident of the area concerned. You simply need to ask clearly.

Councils, NHS trusts, police forces, schools, government departments, quangos and publicly funded bodies are all covered. So are many arms-length organisations that spend public money, from leisure trusts to local enterprise partnerships. Environmental information — pollution records, planning consultations, noise complaints, land use — falls under separate regulations that are often more generous, so it is worth naming them if your request touches on those subjects.

In practice, the richest seams for community storytelling are spending records above a set threshold, contracts and tender documents, meeting minutes and agendas, officer reports, inspection findings, correspondence between departments, and performance data that never quite makes it into the annual report.

Do a Little Homework First

Most requests fail not because the information is secret, but because they land in the wrong inbox. Before you write, spend ten minutes on the authority's website. Look for its publication scheme or disclosure log — you may find the answer already sits there, and you can build on it rather than duplicate it.

Find the named information governance officer or the FOI team's central address. Requests sent to a generic customer services email can sit unread for days, and the twenty-working-day clock only starts when the request is properly received. If you are unsure which body holds the record, ask the one you think is closest and they should signpost you.

How to Write a Request That Gets Answered

Clarity beats cleverness. A strong request does four things:

• States what you want in plain terms. "All invoices over £5,000 paid to external consultants in the 2024/25 financial year" is far better than "consultancy spending".
• Puts boundaries on the search. Give a date range, name the department, and specify the format — spreadsheets and PDFs are usually fine.
• Asks for recorded information, not opinions. You can request the emails, the minutes and the reports, but you cannot demand that an officer explains or justifies a decision.
• Uses your real name and a contact address. You are entitled to anonymity from the wider world, but the authority needs to know who is asking and where to reply.

You do not have to explain why you want the information. Saying so — briefly — can help a busy officer understand what you are really after and give you something useful rather than a narrow, literal answer. A sentence like "I'm researching how the leisure centre refurbishment was procured" often saves a round of clarification.

What "Vexatious" and the Cost Limit Actually Mean

Two rules trip up more requests than any exemption. The first is the appropriate limit on the cost of compliance: roughly eighteen hours of staff time for most public authorities, and twenty-four for central government. Officers can refuse a request that would exceed it, and they are allowed to count the time spent locating, retrieving and extracting the information, though not the time spent deciding whether to release it.

If your request is broad, narrow it yourself before you send it. Offer to accept a sample — one month, one department, one site — and say you will consider a partial response. That single sentence has rescued many a request from the refuse pile.

The second is the vexatious rule, which covers requests designed to disrupt, to re-litigate a settled complaint, or to bury a team in correspondence. A well-drafted request, sent once and answered patiently, is almost never vexatious. Bombarding an authority with variations on the same question, or demanding instant replies, very quickly is.

Deadlines, Refusals and What to Do Next

Public authorities should respond within twenty working days — bank holidays do not count. They can extend that for a public interest test, but they must tell you they are doing so. If you get a refusal, read it carefully. Exemptions around personal data, commercial confidentiality and legal privilege are common, and some are absolute while others require a public interest test.

If you think the decision is wrong, ask for an internal review. This is free, usually takes another twenty working days, and is often handled by someone more senior. If that fails, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, which can order disclosure. Keep every email; a clear paper trail makes a complaint far easier to argue.

Turning Documents into a Story

Raw spreadsheets rarely move people on their own. A contract award is a fact; a contract award that shows the same supplier winning eleven times in three years is a story. Pull out the pattern, then go and knock on doors — the shopkeeper who lost the tender, the parent whose school rebuild stalled, the volunteer group that was never consulted.

Share what you find. Publish the documents, or a clear summary, alongside your piece. Offer the authority a fair right of reply. That habit of transparency builds trust, and it makes the next request easier — for you, and for the neighbour who reads your piece and decides to ask a question of their own.