Introduction | Creating a topic alert | Creating an authority alert | Following a specific FOI request | Managing your alerts | Common questions

Get local and national information… straight into your inbox

Hundreds of people use WhatDoTheyKnow every day, to make Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

The information they are asking for ranges from very local, from authorities like schools, hospitals or councils; to national, from bodies such as the Cabinet Office or Parliament. It can also be a mix of the two, where someone sends a batch of requests for the same information from local authorities across the country.

Whatever the case, you can easily track the requests that you’re most interested in — and the information that is released as a result — by signing up for email alerts.

This free service sends you an email each time your chosen words appear in a request or response; or whenever a request is sent to or from an authority you follow.

For example, you may like to follow:

• a topic related to your work or interests, such as social care, wildlife or literacy;
• a body that’s often in the news, like Parliament, the NHS or one of the armed forces;
• or you may find it interesting to follow your local authorities, like your council, police force or university.

Who uses alerts?

Alerts are super-useful for campaigns, charities, and organisations large and small — as well as any individual who just has a lively curiosity about how the world works.

On this page, we explain how to set an alert up, and how to make sure it’s doing exactly what you want it to.

Creating a topic alert

First, decide what word or topic you would like to track.

What are you interested in?

• Perhaps you’re involved in a campaign, and would like to know every time your cause is mentioned;
• or you might benefit from knowing what information is being released around the industry or sector you work in;
• or maybe you’re just generally passionate about a certain area.

Whatever the case, you could choose a really broad topic (if so, be prepared for frequent alerts), or zero in on the aspects of it that interest you the most.

As an example, let’s say you’re interested in biodiversity, but you’d especially like to know what information people are asking for around toad conservation.

Search for your word or phrase

Every alert begins with a search. From any page on WhatDoTheyKnow, input your search term in the box in the top menu.

 

Refine your search

You can click on ‘Advanced search’ to see useful options.

For example, if you only want to see requests and responses containing the exact phrase “toad conservation”, you can put it in double quotes; and if you’re interested in frogs as well, you can search for toad OR frog conservation, etc.

You can also filter your search so that you only see successful requests, that is, ones which have received a response and the user has marked that they received some or all of the information they asked for.

Or, you can limit the results so that you only see requests to a specific authority.

Each time you make a change, take a look at the search results. These will give you an idea of whether your alert will be sending you the information you’re interested in.

Create your alert

Once you’re happy, click on the blue button marked ‘FOLLOW’, top right of the search results.

Sign in or create an account

If you already have a WhatDoTheyKnow account and you’re not logged in, you’ll be prompted to do so at this point. And that’s it: you’ll start receiving those alerts daily, as soon as your key word or phrase is next mentioned in someone’s FOI request.

Otherwise, you need to create a new account:

 

Fill in these details, then check your email for our confirmation link: click this, and you’re all set.

Non-email option

We send alert emails, at most, once a day (but only if someone has made a relevant request).

If you’d rather not receive emails, click “Prefer not to receive emails?“.

This will still allow you to see results when you visit the site, but you won’t receive an email each time. This can sometimes be a good option for very common words and phrases; or if you only need to occasionally check in on a topic.

All the results will appear on your profile page, in a section called ‘my wall’. To find it, click on the down arrow next to your name at the top right hand side of the menu bar:

You’ll see ‘your wall’ as one of the options.

You can make as many alerts as you like

If you have multiple interests or words/phrases you would like to follow, you can go through this process several times, to create a well-refined alert for each.

Creating an authority alert

Perhaps, rather than topics, you’re more interested in following a specific authority. With this option, you’ll receive notification by email whenever someone submits a request or receives a response from that body.

Find the relevant authority

You can search for authorities in the same search box, at the top of the site; or browse the Public authorities page.

Another interesting approach is to search for a place you’re interested in, and see which authorities come up.

You can filter the results so you only see authorities, if you wish.

In this search for Chichester, we can see a Community Safety Partnership, a university Students’ Union, and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty:

In a more general search (select ‘everything’), you’ll also see all requests containing the place name, which may give you inspiration for other bodies to follow.

And if you’d like to follow any of these authorities, just click on its name. You’ll find the page for that authority, listing all the requests that have been made to it through WhatDoTheyKnow.

Next to the blue button labelled ‘Make a Freedom of Information request to this authority’, you’ll see a smaller, grey one marked ‘Follow’. Click on this to set up your alert.

Here, you can also see how many other people are following that authority.

As with the topic alerts, if you don’t already have a WhatDoTheyKnow account, you’ll be prompted to make one. Otherwise, that’s all you have to do. We send alert emails, at most, once a day (but only if someone has made a relevant request).

Following a specific FOI request

Sometimes, you may simply want to keep up with one particular FOI request that interests you.

As with following an authority (described above), you can just click the blue button marked ‘follow’, and then you’ll receive an alert each time a piece of correspondence is added to the request.

Managing your alerts

You’ll find a list of everything you’re subscribed to – words/phrases, authorities or individual requests – on your profile page. As before, click on the down triangle next to your name in the top bar, and select ‘My profile’.

On this page, you can turn off emails (temporarily or forever). If you choose this option, the results from the authorities, topics or requests that you are following will still appear on your ‘wall’, so you can visit that page at any time to see them.

Alternatively, to delete alerts, there’s the option to unsubscribe from all of them at once, or on an individual basis if you just want to get rid of the alerts that aren’t of interest to you any more.

Common questions

How often do alert emails arrive?

We send them out daily, though you’ll only receive one if the topics/authorities/requests you are following have updated. So, the more common your topic or the more busy your authority, the more emails you’ll receive.

Why aren’t I receiving any alerts?

The most common reasons are:

• Your chosen word pr phrase hasn’t been mentioned in any requests recently You can check when it last came up in a request, either by searching the site, or by visiting your Wall page and looking at the dates beside each result.

It’s also worth considering whether to add synonyms or a wider set of words around the same topic, to capture all the ways in which people might be talking about it.

• The authority you are following hasn’t had any activity recently Some authorities only rarely receive FOI requests through WhatDoTheyKnow, and many have never had one yet (maybe you should submit one?).

Do I need to set up an account to receive alerts?

Yes. That’s not true for every mySociety site (it’s not true of TheyWorkForYou, for example), but it is for WhatDoTheyKnow.

Can I pause or delete my alerts?

Yes – see ‘managing your alerts’ above for more details.

How can I change my email address?

Visit your profile page, and click ‘change your email’. You’ll be asked to put in your old email address and the new one you’d like to use instead.

How can I change my password?

Visit your profile page, and click ‘change your password’. This will trigger an email with instructions for changing it.

I’m trying to sign up for an email alert but the confirmation mail has not arrived

Please check your spam or junk folder. If you still can’t find the email, let us know and we’ll confirm you at our end.

Is it only useful to see/subscribe to successful FOI requests?

No! In fact, it can be quite useful to see requests where information has not been released:

• You might learn from them. Did the request-maker ask for too much, or not word their request very well? The response from the authority should help you understand where they might have gone wrong
• A refusal might tell you something in itself. A body’s refusal to release information can be a news story in itself. And, if they say they don’t hold the information you’re asking for (and it seems like they really should), that’s interesting too.

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Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya