Lifecycle of a Freedom of Information (FOI) request

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Lifecycle of a Freedom of Information (FOI)
request closed public records
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Lifecycle of an FOI request for a closed public
record.
reasonable time allowed if required
Up to 30 working days
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Stage 1 Make a request

• The request comes through to our Remote Enquiries
  Team either from our online contact form or a
  request made through the Catalogue. The Remote
  Enquiries Team will decide where it should go
• 1. Paid search
• 2. General queries
• 3. FOI Request for a closed record and/or The
  National Archives corporate information request
• (A request for an applicants own personal
  information will be treated as a subject access
  request under the Data Protection Act 1998)

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Stage 2 Request is passed to the FOI Centre
If the request is for the FOI Centre it will be
passed to us and will be allocated to the
appropriate FOI Assessor or FOI Researcher. We
will not send an acknowledgement of the request
other than the auto-generated response that comes
when a request is submitted through our online
Catalogue. The National Archives receives more
than 2,500 FOI requests per year and we are
unable to dedicate resource to sending
acknowledgements. Instead we concentrate our
energies on dealing with your request as soon as
it is received.
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Stage 3 Record is reviewed and consultation
carried out
The FOI Act gives public authorities 20 working
days to respond to an FOI request. However,
under The Freedom of Information (Time for
Compliance with Request) Regulations 2004, TNA
can extend the time for compliance with the FOI
Act by ten working days (from 20 to 30) if the
request relates to information contained in a
public record which has yet to be opened. What
this means is if your FOI request is for one of
our archival records as opposed to The National
Archives own corporate business information we
are allowed to extend the time allowed to
consider the request to 30 days. In simple terms
this is because we have a legal requirement to
consult with the department which transferred the
record to us, if the record is closed under
Section 66 of the FOI Act. Any decision regarding
access to a record is made in full consultation
with the original transferring department in
recognition of its continuing interest in access
decisions affecting these records. If we need to
use our extra ten days we will inform you of this
on or before day 20.
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Stage 4 Record being considered for release
The FOI Centre will consider the information
which has been requested by examining the record
and writing a report on its contents. This
report will then be sent to the transferring
department along with a recommendation on whether
the information can be released or is exempt from
disclosure. The National Archives is committed
to releasing what we can, but protecting what we
must. Making these decisions is often a
carefully balanced exercise.
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Stage 5 Public Interest Test (if required)
If some or all of the information requested is
being considered under a qualified exemption
under the FOI Act, then a public interest
balancing test must be undertaken. This involves
assessing whether the public interest in
releasing the information is greater than the
public interest in applying the exemption. This
test is undertaken by the department that
transferred the records. Under the Act The
National Archives are allowed a reasonable amount
of time for this process to take place. However,
we will keep you informed if this test is being
carried out and which exemptions are in question.
We will provide an estimated date when the test
will be completed and the outcome known. The
public interest test process can be complex and
lengthy as other government departments or other
parties may need to be consulted. We do
understand that delays can be frustrating and
your patience is appreciated. Read more about
the public interest test on the Ministry of
Justice website.

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Once a decision has been reached we will
inform you immediately in writing. We will
explain how you can access the information and
when the record will become available for
ordering a copy and/or viewing in the reading
rooms here at Kew. This will allow time for the
record to be redacted (if it is only being
part-opened) and our Catalogue and record
ordering system to be updated to reflect the fact
that the public can now ask to see the
record. Visiting The National Archives to view a
record nationalarchives.gov.uk/visit/ How to
order a copy using the Record Copying
service nationalarchives.gov.uk/recordcopying/ I
t should be remembered that the FOI Act is a
public access regime and a successful FOI request
for a public record will result in that record
being opened to the public at large and will be
available for viewing in our reading room by
everyone.
Stage 6 Decision is reached