 Example request using the WhatDoTheyKnow interface | |
Type of site | Freedom of Information website |
|---|---|
| Owner | mySociety |
| Created by | User-generated/Public Authority generated |
| URL | WhatDoTheyKnow.com |
| Commercial | No |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | 25 February 2008[1][2] |
| Current status | Active |
| Written in | Ruby[3] |
WhatDoTheyKnow is a site by mySociety designed to help people in the United Kingdom make Freedom of Information requests. It publishes both the requests and the authorities’ responses online, with the aim of making information available to all, and of removing the need for multiple people to make the same requests.[4][5][6][7] The site acts as a permanent public database archive of FOI requests made through it.[8][9]
Around 15% to 20% of requests to UK Central Government are made through WhatDoTheyKnow.com.[10][11] Over 45,000 public bodies have been added to the site, mainly by volunteers.[12] More than 800,000 requests have been made using the site[12] and more than 4.5 million people visited it in 2014[13]
WhatDoTheyKnow has been described by The Guardian as "an idiot's guide to making a freedom of information request."[14] The Information Commissioner's Office has stated that it believes "the most up-to-date informal list of all public authorities is held on the website".[15] Information released through the site has given rise to serious and less serious news stories.[16][17][18] The site is used by a number of MPs.[19]
The site was originally available only in English but a partially translated Welsh version was added in 2013.[20]
- ^ "WhatDoTheyKnow.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved 2016-08-09.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
escherwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "The Alaveteli theme for WhatDoTheyKnow (UK)". GitHub.
- ^ Information revolution, New Statesman, Becky Hogg, 2008
- ^ Foi tips for communications professionals, Information Commissioner
- ^ Victory for WhatDoTheyKnow, BBC website
- ^ Local by Social, Andy Gibson
- ^ Whitelaw, Ben (5 August 2011). "ICO Twitter advice fuels open data drive". TheGuardian.com.
- ^ Rogers, Simon (2012-03-20). "Freedom of Information: an FoI request for every day of 2012, listed". The Guardian. London.
- ^ Alex Skene (1 July 2011). "WhatDoTheyKnow's Share of Central Government FOI Requests — Q2 2011". mySociety. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
- ^ "Freedom of Information: 30 Jan 2012: Hansard Written Answers - TheyWorkForYou".
- ^ a b "Whatdotheyknow.com".
- ^ "Are you one in 6,983,028? Looking at our UK visitor numbers / mySociety". 11 May 2015.
- ^ No Minister: Keep skunks out of Whitehall, Guardian, Dick Vinegar
- ^ Information Commissioner's Office response: IRQ0365760
- ^ Child Trust Funds: families count cost of child benefit delay , Telegraph
- ^ Government; Police; Australia; Home Office; Censorship; Lies, damn lies and election polls: Why GE2015 pundits fluffed the numbers so badly; us?, What does the NHS’s new IT plan really want to extract from; riots, CPS grovels after leaking IDs of hundreds arrested during student. "Government wastes millions on redundant cycle route planner". The Register.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Morris, Steven (2011-07-07). "When zombies attack! Bristol city council ready for undead invasion". The Guardian. London.
- ^ WhatDoTheyKnow Beats Parliamentary Question, mySociety, November 2009
- ^ WhatDoTheyKnow now 6% in Welsh, WhatDoTheyKnow blog, 16 January 2013