Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

authorities definition

What does authorities mean? Authorities are the legal sources a lawyer relies on to justify a proposition of law in submissions, skeleton arguments and judgments. The term is descriptive and widely used across England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, rather than being defined by statute. Authorities typically include: primary legislation and subordinate legislation; binding appellate case law within the relevant jurisdiction; and, as persuasive material, decisions from other UK or foreign courts, tribunal rulings, EU and ECHR jurisprudence where applicable, and reputable academic commentary. In Scotland, the writings of the institutional writers (e.g. Stair, Erskine, Bell) may carry particular weight. Textbooks and...

Freedom of Information Act 2000 procedural pitfalls and compliance guide: validity, held information, deadlines, means of communication, fees, vexatious requests, personal data and refusal notices (England, Wales and Northern Ireland)

Published by a LexisNexis Public Law expert

Practice notes

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FIA 2000) grants a public right to access information held by public authorities, including government departments, local institutions, educational institutions, publicly owned companies and other public organisations across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Anyone—individuals, companies and foreign nationals—can request disclosure of any information held by such authorities. This Practice Note outlines common procedural pitfalls and issues that public authorities may encounter when dealing with freedom of information requests (FOI requests).

Requirements for a valid FOI request

How much information needs to be included in an FOI request?

Under FIA 2000, s 8, an information request must:

be in writing
provide the requester’s name and a contact address
set out or describe the information sought

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) interprets the written requirement broadly. In ICO decision FS50530703 it was determined that FOI requests made online or via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter can be valid, provided the Public authority has a presence on the relevant platform and the request meets FIA 2000, s 8. In practice, this may...

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Susan Wolf

Susan Wolf was formerly a Principal Law lecturer at the Northumbria University School of Law, where she taught law for 26 years. During this time Susan developed the LLM in Information Rights Law and Practice and the Postgraduate Certificate in Data Protection Law at the University. Susan taught on the LLM for 11 years and taught over 350 information rights practitioners, including Information Rights Tribunal members and ICO staff. Susan has delivered training and conference papers nationally and internationally in the field of FOIA 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. She wrote the Law Society Handbook on Environmental Information and was a contributor for the Law Society’s Information Sharing Handbook. Susan was also the co-author of Wolf & Stanley on Environmental Law which went into its sixth edition. After leaving the University in 2017 Susan became a consultant at Act Now Training where she...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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