FOI: UK Central Government Freedom of Information Request Statistics

Quarterly statistical releases on the handling of Freedom of Information Act 2000 requests by 43 central government bodies in the UK. The data, designated as National Statistics, covers timeliness of response, request outcomes, and appeal process usage, with an annual report analyzing longer-term trends. It is produced by the Ministry of Justice and sourced from manual returns submitted by participating bodies.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in government responsiveness based on timeliness of response data
• Assess the outcomes of information requests to understand disclosure rates
• Monitor the usage of appeal processes to evaluate the Act's enforcement mechanisms
• Benchmark performance across the 43 central government bodies covered

Strengths

• Covers 43 central government bodies, including all departments of state
• Designated as National Statistics, indicating official quality standards
• Provides both quarterly and annual analyses for trend observation

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data may reflect temporal or institutional bias inherent to the manual returns process

Provenance

Source

Ministry of Justice (UK)

Collection Method

Manual returns submitted by 43 participating central government bodies

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:50.765586; freshness should be verified

Geography

United Kingdom (central government)