Assessing the level of your compliance with FOIA and EIR timescales

These questions are designed to help you assess the timeliness of your responses to requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR). You have a duty to respond in a timely manner and within statutory timescales.

You can use the response rate calculator, alongside the key questions, as a record of your performance. This will also help you assess where you need to make improvements to ensure you comply with the legislation.

However, you should not see the questions as exhaustive. You should always consider any additional questions that may be relevant to assessing your FOI compliance and practice.

Our case officers may also ask you additional questions as part of our assessment of your performance if we receive complaints about your handling of an information request.

Key questions on timeliness

Please answer the questions below, and use the response rate calculator to record your answers.

Please include all requests, regardless of when you received them.

The “stated period” is the timeframe within which you are assessing your organisation’s performance. This could be a month, a quarter, or any other period.

Number of open requests

How many FOIA and EIR requests were open at the end of the stated period?

Number of requests which are overdue

How many open requests were outside the FOIA and the EIR statutory timescales at the end of the stated period?

Number of requests completed in a month

How many FOIA and EIR requests were closed at the end of the stated period? (This includes those completed both within and outside statutory timescales.)

Total number of requests completed within statutory timescales

How many requests were closed within FOIA and the EIR statutory timescales at the end of the stated period? (This includes any extensions to consider FOIA public interest test, or 20 additional working days to respond to complex and voluminous EIR requests.)

How many requests were closed outside FOIA and the EIR statutory timescales, at the end of the stated period?

Permitted extensions

How many FOIA requests were closed within the recommended timescales to carry out the public interest test at the end of the stated period? (ie up to an additional 20 working days)

How many EIR requests which were closed within 40 working days at the end of the stated period? (This is based on whether the complexity and volume of the information requested would have made it impracticable to respond within 20 working days.)

How many FOIA requests were open after 20 working days, in order to carry out the public interest, at the end of the stated period?

How many EIR requests were open after 40 working days, due to the complexity and volume of the request, at the end of the stated period?

Number of open internal reviews

How many FOIA and EIR internal reviews were open at the end of the stated period?

Number of internal reviews which are overdue

How many FOIA and EIR internal reviews were outside the recommended and statutory timescales, at the end of the stated period? (ie recommended timescales - up to 20 working days in most cases, or up to 40 working days in exceptional circumstances, and statutory - up to 40 working days).

Number of internal reviews completed in a month

How many FOIA and EIR internal reviews were closed at the end of the stated period? (This includes those completed within and outside the recommended and statutory timescales.)

Total number of internal reviews completed within recommended and statutory timescales

How many FOIA and EIR internal reviews were closed within the recommended and statutory timescales, at the end of the stated period?

Age profile of overdue requests

How many open FOIA and EIR requests within your organisation are over the following timescales:

One month old
Three months old
Six months old
Nine months old
One year old

What date is the oldest FOIA or EIR request you’ve received?