mySociety, the organisation behind the UK's WhatDoTheyKnow platform, has released new data on information access performance ahead of the 2026 Access to Information Day. The findings expose a persistent gap between legal entitlements under freedom of information legislation and actual government compliance.
WhatDoTheyKnow aggregates Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and responses across UK public bodies. The data reveals how often agencies meet statutory deadlines, how frequently requests are granted versus refused, and which sectors respond most reliably. This benchmark exists nowhere else in comparable form.
For government digital teams and policy officials, the implications are direct. FOI compliance remains a weak point in public sector governance—poor performance damages trust and increases tribunal cases. Procurement teams reviewing records management and digital disclosure systems should factor in mySociety's findings when assessing existing workflows. The data also applies beyond Britain: equivalent freedom of information debates in Germany and across the EU increasingly reference comparable audit work, making WhatDoTheyKnow's methodology relevant for assessing IFG implementation in other jurisdictions.
