Your file, your rights — one page.
General information, not legal advice. If you are in live proceedings, ask your solicitor before making a request. Legal aid for parents in care proceedings is free and non-means-tested.
Subject Access Request (SAR)
Your right to see the personal data an organisation holds about you. UK GDPR Art. 15 & DPA 2018.
Freedom of Information (FOI)
Anyone’s right to see recorded, non-personal information a public authority holds. FOI Act 2000.
Send both, separately labelled, on the same day. A SAR will not get you policies. An FOI will not get you your file. Serious requesters use both.
Not “they must give me everything.” But: every withholding decision must be justified, document by document, against a specific legal test — and you are entitled to ask which test, and why.
Common exemptions — and their limits
- Third-party data: may redact lines about others, not whole documents. Professionals’ names & opinions in their working role are usually not protected.
- Serious harm (DPA 2018 Sch. 3): narrow — must be a real risk of serious physical/mental harm, not embarrassment.
- Court records (FOIA s.32): covers material held only because it is on a court file. The underlying record still counts.
“It’s privileged” — the limits
- Attaches to documents, not whole departments.
- Only communications for the dominant purpose of giving/receiving legal advice.
- Facts don’t become privileged by being told to a lawyer.
- Sharing with third parties can waive it.
- In children’s proceedings, litigation privilege is narrower — Re L [1997] AC 16.
- Under FOIA s.42 it is qualified: public interest test applies.
If they miss the deadline — or refuse
- Step 1Go back to them
FOI → ask for an internal review. SAR → complain to their Data Protection Officer. Be specific about which parts and which exemptions.
- Step 2The ICO
ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint · 0303 123 1113. Send your chronology. Cases take months.
- Step 3Tribunal (FOI only)
Appeal an ICO decision to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights). Free. Decided afresh.
The one question to ask when something is withheld
“Under which specific statutory exemption, applied to which specific document, and on what reasoning?”
You are entitled to an answer. The answer is often where your case starts.
Two cautions
- SARs are not disclosure. If you need a document for a hearing, ask your solicitor to apply for specific disclosure — much faster.
- Care what you publish. Section 12 Administration of Justice Act 1960 and FPR r.12.73 restrict publishing details of private children proceedings — including online.
Do this today
- Send one SAR, one FOI, separately labelled.
- Name the departments (incl. Legal Services).
- Start a one-page chronology — dates down the left.
- Diarise the two deadlines (1 month · 20 working days).
- Consider sending the same pair to Cafcass.