Freedom of Information

This section is Guidance

Find out how to make a request to us under the Freedom of Information Act.

Overview

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2000 provides public access to information held by public authorities.

With the exception of personal information (access to which is covered by the Data Protection Act 1998), you can ask for any information at all, and you should be provided with a response within a month.

Some information may be withheld to protect various interests, which are allowed for by the Act.

You can find more information about your rights under the Act on GOV.UK (opens in new tab).

Before you request information

Check if the information you are looking for is already available.

You can:

  • search this website for the relevant information
  • contact us for help with finding the published information, or check if there is unpublished information that we can make available to you

Our customer services team may be able to deal with your query more quickly than if you submit a FOI request.

HM Revenue & Customs has a publication scheme (opens in new tab) that shows what information we currently release or expect to release.

If you request information that is already publicly available, we will refer you to the published information.

How to make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request

Most requests will be answered free of charge, although you may be asked to meet costs in certain circumstances.

Requests may be refused if it is expected to cost more than £600 to find the information and prepare it for release.

This represents the estimated cost of 1 person spending 3.5 working days locating and extracting all the information requested.

Find out how to make an FOI request to HMRC (opens in new tab).