The FOI Act covers any recorded information that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland.
Information held by Scottish public authorities is covered by Scotland’s own Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
Public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state schools and police forces. However, the Act does not necessarily cover every organisation that receives public money.
For example, it does not cover some charities that receive grants and certain private sector organisations that perform public functions.
Recorded information includes printed documents, computer files, letters, emails, photographs, and sound or video recordings.
Can I request information about myself under FOI?
The FOI Act does not give you access to your own personal information such as Housing Benefit or Grant files.
If you wish to see information that we hold on you as an individual, then you would need to make a Data Subject Request.
You can read more information about how to make a request in our section on Data Protection.
Can I request Environmental Information under FOI?
The FOI Act does not give you access to Environmental Information as this is covered by the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. Under the Regulations, requests can be made verbally or in writing.
How to make an FOI request?
If the information you want is not routinely published, you can make a request for it under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 or, for environmental information, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 at the details below;
