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 created and run 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 "promptly", and in any event not later than 20 working days after receiving your request. The date of that hard limit 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 remind them that they are breaking the law. Note: If you had to clarify your request, the clock starts from that date, instead of the date they received your initial request.

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.

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

Some public authorities, such as South East Water, 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 you write you request, it reminds you that you can only request "environmental information" and tells you what that means. It is quite broad.

So can I request information using EIR from other authorities? #

Yes, just make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request as normal. The authority has a duty to work out if the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) is the more appropriate legislation to reply under.

Privacy questions #

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 relating to a request you made, an email alert that you have signed up for, or for other reasons that you specifically authorise. 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? #

It is good practice for the public authority to reply to an anonymous 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.

However, there are good reasons to use your real name: see the previous question. If nothing else, it avoids the risk of an authority being picky, ignoring the guidance and refusing your request.

They've asked for my postal address! #

If a public authority asks you for your full, physical address, reply to them saying that section 8.1.b of the FOI Act asks for an "address for correspondence", and that the email address you are using is sufficient.

The Ministry of Justice has guidance on this – "As well as hard copy written correspondence, requests that are transmitted electronically (for example, in emails) are acceptable ... If a request is received by email and no postal address is given, the email address should be treated as the return address."

As if that isn't enough, the Information Commissioner's Hints for Practitioners say "Any correspondence could include a request for information. If it is written (this includes e-mail), legible, gives the name of the applicant, an address for reply (which could be electronic), and includes a description of the information required, then it will fall within the scope of the legislation."

No no, they need a postal address to send a paper response! #

If an authority only has a paper copy of the information that you want, they may ask you for a postal address. To start with, try persuading them to scan in the documents for you. You can even offer to gift them a scanner, which in that particular case embarrassed the authority into finding one they had already.

If that doesn't work, and you want to provide your postal address privately in order to receive the documents, then please contact us.

How do you moderate request annotations? #

Annotations on WhatDoTheyKnow are to help people get the information they want, or to give them pointers to places they can go to help them act on it. We reserve the right to remove anything else.

Endless, political discussions are not allowed. Post a link to a suitable forum or campaign site elsewhere.

FOI officer questions #

I just got here from bottom of an FOI request, what is going on? #

WhatDoTheyKnow is a service run by a charity. It helps ordinary members of the public make FOI requests, and easily track and share the responses.

The FOI request you received was made by someone using WhatDoTheyKnow. You can simply reply to the request as you would any other request from an individual. The only difference is that your response will be automatically published on the Internet.

If you have privacy or other concerns, please read the answers below. You might also like to read this page from the top to find out more about what the site does from the point of view of a user. You can also search the site to find the authority that you work for, and view the status of any requests made using the site.

Finally, we welcome comments and thoughts from FOI officers, please get in touch.

Why are you publishing responses to FOI requests? #

We think there are lots of benefits. Most importantly it will encourage the public to be more interested and involved in the work of government. We also hope that it will reduce the number of duplicate requests on any subject that a public body will receive. Given that Freedom of Information responses contain public information, which anybody could easily request again from the public authority, we think there should be no reason not to publish it widely.

Are the people making requests real people? #

Yes. For the purposes of keeping track of responses we use computer-generated email addresses for each request. However, before they can send a request, each user must register on the site with a unique email address that we then verify. You can search this site and find a page listing all requests that each person has made.

An email isn't a sufficient address for an FOI request! #

Yes it is. This letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives guidance on the matter, specifically in the context of requests made via WhatDoTheyKnow.

Aren't you making lots of vexatious requests? #

WhatDoTheyKnow is not making any requests. We are sending requests on behalf of our users, who are real people making the requests.

Look at it like this - if lots of different people made requests from different Hotmail email addresses, then you would not think that Microsoft were making vexatious requests. It is exactly the same if lots of requests are made via WhatDoTheyKnow. Moreover, since all requests are public it is much easier for you to see if one of our users is making vexatious requests, and for us to block them when that happens.

If that isn't enough for you, the letter from the ICO to Rother District Council gives some guidance on the matter.

Isn't it a problem that you publish the names of civil servants and the text of emails? #

Officers or servants responding to requests are doing so on behalf of the public as part of their job, and we publish their response on that basis. Usually the names and phone numbers of FOI officers are already available on authority websites. We also encourage our users to give their real name too, so it is fair both ways.

Do you publish email addresses or mobile phone numbers? #

We automatically remove email addresses and labelled mobile phone numbers that are in the email part of responses from public authorities. Please contact us if we've missed one. We don't currently remove these from attachments, such as Word documents.

Can you take down private information about me? #

If you see any information on the site which you'd like us to remove or hide, then please let us know. We'll then remove it, provided it is genuinely private information.

Credit where credit is due #

Which people made WhatDoTheyKnow? #

Oh, nearly everyone (and maybe you too)!

• Heather Brooke (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 got the cash to pay for the site from a dead chocolate mogul (thank you!) ...
• ... 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 run the site - most especially Adam McGreggor, Alex Skene, John Cross and Tony Bowden.
• 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.