FOI Fest: George Greenwood’s 10 FOI tips in 10 minutes
In a session from FOI Fest, the Times’ investigation reporter George Greenwood shared his top ten tips around using FOI, in just ten minutes. Enjoy!
FOI Fest was held on 19th February and was co-organised by the FOI Network.
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Transcript
0:00 [Gavin Freeguard] Welcome to FOI Fest 2026.
0:04 [George Greenwood] Hello everybody. My name is George Greenwood, and I’m investigations reporter at the Times newspaper, and put it mildly, an avid user of FOI for my reporting.
0:18 Today, it’s going to be a quick fire skill session, just ten tips in ten minutes, on how best campaigners, journalists, members of the public, even some other public authorities, can use FOI to the best of their ability and to get the most out of it.
0:35 So I think the first thing to say is that don’t be afraid of the appeals process. Not every public authority gets it right first time. Sometimes providing more context of your request can be really important and explaining why it’s the public interest to disclose it.
0:49 But also, I think that from a journalist’s point of view or a campaigner’s point of view, if you think there’s something really good there, you should exploit the opportunities for appeal you have.
0:59 I think that when you can, you do need to get through why is this in the public interest? Why is this something that should be disclosed? And put that in as much detail as you can, to the public authority, or the ICO and to a tribunal maybe at some point, so that these things can be taken into account.
1:20 In terms of the ICO, remember, you don’t need to write essays, and I’m sure Warren’s talked about the use of AI maybe not being most helpful if you just want to put across what your point is. But you do have that right of appeal. And if you think there’s a good story there and public interest and stuff being out there, you should make that appeal.
1:37 Inevitably, in the way FOI law works in the UK, you have to play the long game slightly. You know, if you have to go to an ICO appeal, that can take months to get through, it gets through the tribunal, it will take even longer. So to some extent, you have to punch clever.
1:52 What you can’t assume, is that within a month of you getting… within 20 working days, you will get the information you need to write a story, to build a campaign, to find information that’s something that you can use.
2:05 In my experience, I tend to think in terms of 12 to 18 months. Can I get inform… Is this still going to be a story in 12 to 18 months to justify the effort I’m putting in to go through the appeals process?
2:16 You also need to think about really cynically, is a news editor, or is your campaign chief, or is your issue going to still be an issue in that time period? And I think, being being blunt, that’s the way you have to think about these things.
2:34 Sometimes you get lucky. Sometimes authorities will release things within 20 working days, 40 working days, or after internal review. It doesn’t always happen, so I think you have to, if you get it that’d be great, but you just have to think about, is it still worth going down this level of an appeal to get where you want to go?
2:51 I think what I would say is, don’t be afraid of the information tribunal. I know it is scary, and I certainly found it scary ther first time I ever stood in front of a judge. But you can do it. You don’t need a lawyer.
3:02 What you need to do is to have a serious case, I think, don’t take it lightly, but at the same time, you can put in paper appeals, for example. That is just like you go to the ICO, you’d write down your reasons why you think the information should be public, you respond to submissions from the ICO and from the public authority, and a judge, without having a hearing, will make a ruling.
3:23 Now, you know this is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. I think you really do need to think there’s a story there or something important. But if you don’t think you’ve got your shot the first time around the ICO, they missed something, or you think that they didn’t quite get something right, and it does happen, don’t be afraid to consider an internal information tribunal appeal
3:45 I think, as Isaac was talking about just now, when you’re sending Round Robins, do consider doing a test sending of requests. First, I’ve been there and sent 400 FOI requests to every public authority in the country to realise that I was citing the wrong piece of legislation or the wrong thing, and suddenly got 400 refusals and it killed my inbox.
4:09 So do consider sending to maybe it’s 10% of the authorities you’re looking at. It reduces burden on them, because if it’s not going to be a story you’re going to do, that doesn’t waste their time, it doesn’t waste your time.
4:19 FOI stories are not going to be something you get within a month. And I actually think taking this longer term approach means you get a much more targeted request when you send out the final round robin, and you’re going to get a much better results and give you something that actually might prove something you’re trying to look into.
4:34 So don’t be afraid to actually do one round of requests to see what information is held, how it’s held, and it really leads to a much better FOI practice that wastes less time for authorities and waste less time for you get on the phone.
4:45 I think that all too often, and younger reporters especially who’ve grown up in the technical era and the same with campaigners is they’re afraid of the mobile phone. They’re afraid of ringing someone up and asking questions. Most FOI officers are there to help you. They are there because they care about information, and actually talking to them is going to be something that saves everyone lots of time and lots of aggro.
5:08 And generally, in my experience, it’s not FOI officers that are refusing disclosure in authorities. It’s people who are higher up the chain. That’s where the pressure comes from, not from FOI teams themselves. And as Maurice was saying, knowing that they can tell their advice, “you’re not going to be able to not release this” can be really helpful.
5:27 But getting on the phone with them, talking about this, they can help you target your requests. It saves them time, and it saves you time, and as long as you go on to it, there’s an open minded view that they’re not there to try and stop you. They’re actually probably going to be a good resource for you. And actually getting on the phone where you can, that can save everyone a lot of time.
5:49 Now, of course, some authorities don’t put phone numbers on websites, or it’s quite hard to find, but where it’s available, don’t be afraid to get on the phone and talk to these people if you can.
5:54 Don’t be afraid to combine your data rights so DPA and FOI requests can be used in concert. Sometimes your departments accuse you of misusing the law and doing so, but it’s not true. You’re allowed to send a DPA request and followed up an FOI request.
6:10 This is an example from the Attorney General’s office where I did some work on email sent by now Reform MP Suella Braverman., It took getting to the tribunal and a long piece of work to get the information which proved that she was misusing the emails which posed a security risk.
6:30 I got a story out of it eventually, but the request was so slow. I did have concerns about my how my own personal data was being used, so I filed a DPA asking for every email about me, got the response, and then found what was most interesting responses in that, and filed an FOI for each of those documents.
6:50 And that’s what you got, where, actually, you know, the DPA version of that was just “George Greenwood”, a bit of this, and actually, the rest of it all came from the FOI. And actually, you know, that’s obviously me looking at how FOIs are politicised, sometimes in public bodies. But if you’ve got source or a contact, or somebody who has had a bad experience at public authority, they have DPA rights as well.
7:13 So you can get them to file DPA requests and then file an FOI request for the remaining information. And so combining your data rights in this way can be really effective at getting more information that would otherwise hit the cost limit, because, you know the government, the FOI might quite rightly hit section 12 cost limit because it doesn’t know where it is, but it’s searching just for your name.
7:36 There isn’t a DPA cost limit in the same way as a burden limit, which is slightly more difficult to argue around. So actually, combining your data rights in this way can be really effective at looking where there’s been a misuse of process around an individual or an individual suffered from abuse by authority or misconduct around their activity or their abilities claim benefits or something like that.
7:58 So don’t be afraid to consider combining your data rights and situation, and in this case, it led to the ICO actually taking action against the AGO because of the way they handle information. So you can see, even you know something that might seem you know technical, actually, it can lead to action being taken against authorities.
8:16 As a result, a lack of transparency is actually a news story itself. In my view, I think especially when it’s stuff that’s really in the public interest and authority does resist ,hold up, forces you to go to the ICO, forces you to go to the tribunal, that’s actually something worth writing about, because I think that, you know, whatever the letter of the law, there’s a moral question here, should this information be public?
8:45 And actually, my experience as a reporter sometimes fighting that in parallel in the press can be effective at making a government department or a public authority reassess whether it’s worth fighting this all the way through.
8:49 To give you one recent example, we wrote a story about the Crown Estate not releasing information about Prince Andrew’s rental agreements at Royal Lodge. And a day later, the fastest response I’ve ever had in my life. A day later, we actually disclose the whole thing, and that let us break the story about peppercorn rents.
9:07 So sometimes, actually writing about transparency can be not only important for constitutional reasons: “we think this is something we’re being really badly served by government not being transparent on” – it can actually be a tactic in terms of making sure they’re aware that this is actually a matter of why, just by generating that sort of public debate yourself, to some extent, and that can really help government partners reassess whether stuff should or should not be public.
9:36 One thing I’d really encourage everyone to do, who does lots of requests, is keep a request library. Don’t just keep it in an inbox somewhere. Actually, think about having a structured response library that you can keep track of what you’ve asked for, because often things change.
9:54 News reports change, what is salient in a situation changes, and so suddenly a story that you thought was interesting, but not maybe biggest in the world can suddenly become really relevant, and having that kind of structured archive means you get the most out of that information, that it’s not just been a sort of FOI that sits in your inbox, that actually you can then go back to and use and get the most value for time and money out of the FOI request.
10:20 So I’ll give you one example. I did a whole series of requests to public authorities about Chinese funding for university programs that fell out of the news. The story didn’t get used initially, but I kept a good record of what I’d done there, and then suddenly there was a news hook for this about a scandal at a different university, and within a week, I could run up a story about this based on the other for wires.
10:43 So it’s a really good example to keep a really good record of what you’ve done. Don’t just dump it somewhere, actually, you know, keep this on your computer somewhere so you can come back to it later, or also inform future requests.
10:55 If you’ve got something before, knowing that you’ve got it before and you might want to go for it again, can be really helpful in making sure that you use precedent to help negotiate with authorities that may be slightly recalcitrant about responding. One thing, like we don’t really talk about here, but it’s really important, is often FOI laws around the world are not jurisdictionally limited.
11:17 So in the UK, for example, if you’re a Swedish national or a French national, there’s nothing to stop you making an FOI in the UK, and that’s often true abroad as well.
11:25 So actually, if you’re doing campaigning or reporting, getting information under other FOI jurisdictions, and then comparing that to the UK or using that to find information about UK related matters in other jurisdictions, can be really helpful.
11:40 I mean, to give one recent example, in October, with the organised crime and corruption reporting project, we did a big investigation into doctors who’ve been banned in foreign countries, who’ve been able to get UK medical licenses.
11:53 Now, that involved us filing FOIs all over Europe to get the ban lists and then to match them. But for example, one of the key stories from that came from an FOI we filed in Norway that showed a doctor who was registered in the UK had been banned there, and actually got the whole reasons for his banning.
12:11 Now, you know, in that situation, that’s a clearly UK relevant story. So actually, sometimes, you know, for example, the EU has FOI laws as well, which sometimes can be relevant for comparisons or for other things. So do be aware that your FOI rights are not just UK focused, but they are cross jurisdictional.
12:30 You know, US regulations, they have information about UK matters. Do think about using your rights across the world and not just in the UK. I think the thing is, with all this stuff, is it’s really important, and you can get very heated about thinking that something should be in public domain, but be nice.
12:46 Like, you can be firm and forceful in your arguments without playing the man, not the ball. FOI officers are normally just doing their job, and usually it’s not them who is the pressure and authority not to release something – that usually comes from higher up, unless it’s actually something that they really don’t think should be released for good reasons, and in that case, that’s a matter for the ICO or courts to look at and come to a reasonable conclusion
13:13 Being nasty, being rude, being aggressive towards people, will not help you. All it will do is make them less likely to be as helpful as possible they can be, and undermining your potential ally than the organisation you’re trying to hold to account. It’s not worth it. Don’t do it.
13:31 Those are my ten tips in ten minutes. Thank you very much for listening to my rambling!
13:40 [Myf Nixon] Hello to our most completist listeners. If you’re still listening, thank you so much for sticking with this right to the end.
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