Unhappy about the response you got?

If ...

• You didn't get a reply within 20 working days
• You did not get all of the information that you requested or
• Your request was rejected, but without a reason valid under the law

... you can

1. Ask for an Internal Review at the public authority.
2. If that doesn't help, complain to the Information Commisioner.
3. Either way, also use other means to answer your question.

1. Asking for an Internal Review

Contact the Freedom of Information officer at the public authority and request an internal review.

You should be able to find the email address for this by searching the website of the public authority. If you filed your request using WhatDoTheyKnow, you can include a link to the page about your request, so the internal review has easy access to all the relevant correspondence.

The Internal Review should take 2-3 weeks for simple cases, and up to 6 weeks even for complex reviews. You will then either get the information that you originally requested, or you will be told that the review upholds the original decision.

2. Complaining to the Information Commissioner

If you are still unhappy after the public authority has done their internal review, then you can complain to the Information Commisioner. To do this read Complaints about Freedom of Information on the Information Commisioner's website.

Again, you can include a link to your request on WhatDoTheyKnow, or print out the whole page of your request, to make it easy to send the relevant information to the Information Commissioner.

Warning: There is a backlog of work at the Information Commissioner, and it can take literally years to get resolution from them. If you reach this point, you should accept that you won't get the information quickly by this means. Maybe you want to help the fight to improve Freedom of Information, or maybe getting the information slowly is still worthwhile.

3. Using other means to answer your question

You can try persuing your problem or your research in other ways.

• Make an FOI request for summary information, or for documentation relating indirectly to matters in your rejected request. Ask us for ideas if you're stuck.
• If any other public authorities or publically owned companies are involved, then make FOI requests to them.
• Write to your MP or other politician and ask for their help. Often MPs can find out information which individuals can't, by directly writing to ministers or departments, or by asking a written question in the House of Commons. Likewise, councillors in local authorities can go and talk directly to officers to try and find things out.
• Ask others researching the same or similar questions for ideas. Perhaps you can find them by browsing this site; you can contact any registered user from their page. Perhaps there is an Internet forum or group where there are people who know about the area you are researching. If it is a local matter, use GroupsNearYou to find such a forum.
• Start a pledge to get others to act together with you. For example, you could arrange a meeting with staff from the authority. Or you could form a small local campaigns group.