ECSH150500 - Freedom of Information: Introduction

Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) gives people a general right of access to all types of recorded information held by public authorities.  

Under the FOIA HMRC are obliged to:

  • Publish certain information about their activities.
  • Respond to requests for information.

The general public are entitled to request information from HMRC.

Recorded information includes printed documents, computer files, letters, emails, photographs, and sound or video recordings.

The FOIA also includes some specific requirements to do with datasets. A dataset is collection of factual, raw data that HMRC gathers as part of providing services and delivering their function as a public authority and is held in electronic form. 

It does not give people access to their own personal data. If this is required, the person should make a data protection subject access request. For more information on how we deal with subject access requests see ECSH151500.

Section 8 of the FOIA requires that a request for information must:

  • Be made in writing – letter or email (note: it does not have to state it is an FOIA request).
  • State the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence. Both email and postal addresses are acceptable.
  • Adequately describe the information sought.

Under section 10 of the FOIA, all requests for information must be dealt with within 20 working days of receipt in HMRC.

Anyone can make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request – they do not need to be a UK citizen or reside in the UK. FOI requests can also be made by organisations, for example a newspaper, a campaign group or a company.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent supervisory authority for data protection in the UK. Their role is to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

They have a duty to investigate complaints from the general public who believe that a public authority has failed to respond correctly to a request for information.

Information on the FOIA can be found at the ICO website.