How To Make An Effective Freedom Of Information (FOI) Request

Freedom of information (FOI) requests enable you to gather data held by public authorities that is not ordinarily available. This data makes a great basis for digital PR campaigns because it's:

From a trusted source
Unique
Of interest to the public

In the UK, you can make an FOI request to any public authority, such as government departments, local councils, NHS bodies, and police forces.

In the US, you can make an FOIA request to any federal agency, such as the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Here are some example of FOI requests in the news:

Note: FOI requests cost the tax payer money and take resources away from the public body you are making them too, so I don't recommend spamming them with lots of requests for the sake of it.

Think carefully about the request you want to make, if the information is going to be genuinely newsworthy / useful for the public to know, and if you will definitely make use of it.

How to make UK FOI requests

The easiest way to make a FOI request in the UK is through the website whatdotheyknow.com. It's a centralised service that makes it easy to batch requests if you need and also keep track of replies.

You can also find FOI forms or emails on each public body's website.

The law states that the authority must reply within 20 working days of your request, but in reality, this doesn't always happen.

How to make USA FOI requests

To make a USA FOI you will need to navigate the to appropriate section of the authority you want to make the FOI request too, where you will find a form to fill out.

Making a UK FOI request is always free, but US FOI can be chargable. However, in practice, you'll rarely be charged a fee.

"In the USA, commercial use requesters have to pay for search, review, and duplication fees. Educational institutions, noncommercial scientific institutions, and representatives of the news media only pay for duplication fees after the first 100 pages, while all other requesters pay for search and duplication fees after the first two hours of search time and the first 100 pages."

You will either be making the request as a representative of news media or as an 'other requester'.

US authorities should reply to your request within 20 days, but again this doesn't always happen.

Tips for making FOI requests

Here are some tips to make sure your FOI request is successful first time.

Decide on the data you want and determine which authority is best to contact

I find that AI chatbots are pretty good at helping you decide which authority will hold your data. You can also look at past FOI requests in a similar area to the information you're trying to collect and find out which bodies

Check if the information is already publicly available

You can check the public bodies official site where you will often find a section on publicly available data as well as (sometimes) past FOI requests.

You can also search whatdotheyknow.com for past FOI requests.

If you find the data you want has already been published, you don't need to make a new FOI request. If you find the data you want, but it's outdated you can make things easier for the FOI officer by stating you already have the data for some dates but would like it updated.

Examine past FOI requests in the same area

This is a really crucial step, especially if you're new to making FOI.

By looking at old requests you can see what kind of data the authority is likely to refuse or grant and why.

You can get an idea of how they store and report the data and the language they use when they're talking about the data. And you will learn more about any specific nuances of the data you're collecting.

For example, I wanted to make a request to a hospital about spend on patients food. I research similar past FOI request and learned that if I simply requested 'spend of patients meals', I would get a figure that included staff costs, equipments costs, etc...

I didn't want this, so was sure to be specifically ask for just ingredients spend.

Gathering as much information as possible before starting your request can save you a lot of hassle down the line and ensure as much as possible that you get the data you're after.

You can update a request once you've made it, but this is far from ideal. Why you want to avoid making updates:

• It gets confusing quickly if you're making updates.

• If you're making a batch request, there is no way to add a 'batch' update, so you need to manually update each request.

• The authority can use your update as an excuse to reset the 20 day time limit.

• Sometimes he authority won't see the update.

Be as clear as possible and don't ask for too much

Use clear language, include exact dates, outline exactly what data you want, and specify the format you would like to receive the data in.

Avoid any form of vagueness of ambiguity.

Don't ask for too much, one of the reasons an authority can refuse a request if it it would take them too long to gather all the data. The more data you ask for, them more likely this is. If you're worried about your request being refused for this reason, you can include a sentence in your FOI request detailing how it would be acceptable for the authority to slim your request down.

For example, if you've requested monthly data. You might say, "if you are unable to provide monthly data within your time and money constraints, please provide quarterly data instead."

Monitor for replies

You may get asked for clarifications or for more information once you've sent the request and you want to reply to these as soon as possible because they tend the pause the clock.

So the 20 day time limit wont restart until you answer their questions.

If you haven't received any kind of response a day or two before the dealing, I like to send a follow up message reminding the authority that their deadline is coming up. This can push them to reply.

Psst... if you want to do more of a deep dive into making FOI requests, check out this book: Freedom of Information: A practical guide for UK journalists