The suggested templates below are inspired by ‘standard responses’ published by the UK Ministry of Justice (and its predecessor, the Department for Constitutional Affairs) in the early days of the UK's FOI regime and still available in the web archive maintained by TNA (see Chapter 4). They include as necessary copyright and re-use notices advocated by TNA (reproduced here under the Open Government Licence v3.0). FOI officers should customise the templates carefully for their own use, ensuring that they meet their authority's needs.

Acknowledging requests

Dear [applicant's name]

Thank you for your request for information of [date of letter/email from applicant], received by us on [date letter/email received from applicant], requesting information about [subject].

Your request is being dealt with under freedom of information requirements and will be answered within 20 working days.

If you have any queries about your request do not hesitate to contact me. Please note the information below about your personal information.

Yours sincerely,

[your name, address, e-mail address and telephone number]

Your privacy: we use your personal information such as name and address so that we can comply with our legal obligations to respond to FOI requests. For further details about the use of information about you, please see the information request handling privacy notice on our website at [url of privacy notice].

Disclosing information as an attachment

Dear [applicant's name]

Thank you for your request for information of [date received] where you requested information about [subject]. The information you requested is [attached/enclosed - delete as appropriate].

Copyright and re-use

[The notice below applies if you are willing to allow re-use of the disclosed material under the Open Government Licence.]

The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. Use of copyright and database right material expressly made available under this licence (the ‘Information’) indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions below.

The Licensor grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the Information subject to the conditions below.

This licence does not affect your freedom under fair dealing or fair use or any other copyright or database right exceptions and limitations.