Making a Request

A wealth of information about the House of Commons and the House of Lords is already available to the public.

www.parliament.uk

Information freely available from the website www.parliament.uk includes:

  • information on forthcoming business
  • daily Proceedings recorded in the official report (Hansard), including votes taken in the House
  • public bills in progress
  • committee publications

    • Publication Scheme

    The House of Commons and the House of Lords each have a Publication Scheme which sets out the classes of information that they publish and states how the information is made available.

    Information Offices

    The House of Commons and the House of Lords each have an Information Office, which serve as a central contact point for queries from the public and the press on the work of each House, including membership, current and future business.

    Parliamentary Archives

    The Parliamentary Archives provides an archive service for both Houses of Parliament and facilitates public access to records.

    Advice and Assistance

    Advice and assistance in making Freedom of Information Act and Environmental Information Regulations requests to the House of Commons or the House of Lords is available from:

    The Information Rights and Information Security Service for the House of Commons

    The Freedom of Information Officer for the House of Lords

    General queries regarding the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations should be directed to the Information Commissioner’s Office www.ico.gov.uk, as the independent authority set up to promote access to official information.

    Request Form

    Before making a request, you may wish to check whether the information you require is already available from one of the sources above.

    The House of Commons and the House of Lords are separate public authorities. Requests for access to information should be directed to the relevant House which may hold the requested information.

    Freedom of Information Request Form

    Mandatory fields are indicated by *
    Personal details of the applicant
    Please complete either the address or email fields below *
    If application is on behalf of an organisation

    Should we be unable to provide the information in your preferred means of communication an explanation will be made available to you.

    Copyright

    The Act does not transfer copyright on any information supplied in response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.

    Information may be subject to parliamentary copyright or to third party copyright.

    Any infringement of copyright is the responsibility of the applicant. You will need to check whether copyright restrictions apply before copying or publishing (including on the Internet) information you receive in response to a Freedom of Information request.

    Data Protection Act, 1998

    The personal data supply on this form will be held and processed in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 by the House of Parliament to whom you have directed your request. This information will be processed for the purpose of handling your request for information. For further information about the processing of personal data please see:

    Related information

    Information Commissioner

    The Information Commissioner's Office is the UK's independent authority set up to promote access to official information and to protect personal information. Further information about relevant laws is available on the Information Commissioner's Office website www.ico.gov.uk

    Relevant legislation

    The official, revised edition of relevant legislation can be found in the UK Statute Law Database through the following links             

    Records Management