Freedom of Information compliance at The National Archives
The vast majority of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests received by The National Archives are in relation to our archival holdings. Increasingly, these request are for access to historic military service personnel records. You can learn more about the transfer of personnel records at our project page.
Like most public bodies, The National Archives also receives FOI requests in relation to how it conducts its business. We refer to these as ‘corporate’ FOI requests.
To increase transparency, our performance against each of these type of request is set out below.
Our overall FOI performance figures are also reported on a quarterly and annual basis as part of FOI Statistics published by Cabinet Office.
Requests received (2024)
| Request type | January–March | April–June | July–September | October–December |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOD service records | 6526 | 7248 | 6979 | |
| Other archival records | 973 | 884 | 764 | |
| Corporate requests | 34 | 32 | 26 | |
| All requests | 7533 | 8164 | 7769 |
Percentage meeting deadline or with permitted extension (2024)
| Request type | January–March | April–June | July–September | October–December |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOD service records | 49% | 46% | 46% | |
| Other archival records | 93% | 92% | 95% | |
| Corporate requests | 94% | 100% | 100% | |
| All requests | 55% | 51% | 51% |
Requests received (2023)
| Request type | January–March | April–June | July–September | October–December |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOD service records | 2694 | 2666 | 4528 | 6758 |
| Other archival records | 1069 | 1170 | 972 | 829 |
| Corporate requests | 18 | 28 | 32 | 20 |
| All requests | 3781 | 3864 | 5532 | 7607 |
Percentage meeting deadline or with permitted extension (2023)
| Request type | January–March | April–June | July–September | October–December |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOD service records | 54% | 41% | 48% | 48% |
| Other archival records | 89% | 95% | 94% | 94% |
| Corporate requests | 100% | 100% | 91% | 100% |
| All requests | 64% | 56% | 56% | 53% |
Requests received (2022)
| Request type | January–March | April–June | July–September | October–December |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOD service records | 435 | 865 | 1094 | 1813 |
| Other archival records | 1061 | 819 | 995 | 744 |
| Corporate requests | 39 | 21 | 25 | 17 |
| All requests | 1535 | 1705 | 2114 | 2574 |
Percentage meeting deadline or with permitted extension (2022)
| Request type | January–March | April–June | July–September | October–December |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOD service records | 48% | 34% | 39% | 58% |
| Other archival records | 80% | 76% | 78% | 87% |
| Corporate requests | 82% | 81% | 88% | 94% |
| All requests | 71% | 54% | 57% | 67% |