Freedom of Information

Overview

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI Act) gives anyone the right to request recorded information held by public authorities. It is regulated by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), an independent body.

Under the FoI Act, you can make a request to the Bank for information you think we might hold. Please be aware that the following areas of our work are not covered by the FoI Act:

• monetary policy
• operations to support financial institutions for stability reasons
• private banking and related services.

You also have rights to access information the Bank holds on the environment under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIR). The following guidance covers requests made under EIR as well as those made under the FoI Act.

The ICO publish guidance on how to make a request. Please read this before making a request, particularly noting their ‘Top Tips’ and guidance on ‘Using AI to help draft information requests’.

Before you make a request to us, you should see whether the information is already made available through our website or other means.

Our Publication Scheme and website

FOIA requires us to maintain a publication scheme, setting out the information that we make publicly available. The Bank has adopted the ICO’s model publication scheme for public authorities which requires us to publish information in relation to the following:

• who we are and what we do
• what we spend and how we spend it
• what our priorities are and how we are doing
• how we make decisions
• policies and procedures
• lists and registers
• the services we offer.

Our primary method of making this information available is via our website, which acts as a guide to the information within our publication scheme. Most of this information is published online, but in some cases it may only be available for physical inspection. It includes:

• our Annual Report and Accounts
• expenses, diary engagements and entertainment and gifts records for our Governor, Executive Directors and committee members, published quarterly
• a chart showing how the Bank is organised including names and job titles of the most senior officers
• statistical releases, policies, reports and other publications
• records open for inspection in the Bank of England Archive
• statistics on our FoI Act compliance
• responses to previous requests made under the FoI Act in our Disclosure Log.

Freedom of information (FoI) requests

If you are satisfied that we do not already publish the information you think we might hold, you can make an FoI request to the Bank. 

To do this, you must:

1. Put your request in writing, describing the information you are looking for as clearly as possible.
2. Include your name and an address (this can be an email address) so that we can reply.
3. Send your request by email to information-access@bankofengland.co.uk or by post to Information Access Team (TS-Mz), Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH. 

We aim to answer requests for information within 20 working days of receiving them. If you are not happy with the handling of your request or our response, you should write to the Head of Information Access at the address above. 

Please read our privacy notice for information requests, set out below, which explains what we do with your personal data when you make a request.

We have a working level agreement with the Financial Conduct Authority which sets out certain principles to be followed for handling requests under the FoI Act that are of mutual interest. These include liaising on requests that are both conduct and prudential related and transferring requests to ensure that they are handled by the relevant authority.

• Working Level Agreement between the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England in respect of certain Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’) requests (pdf)

Requests for personal information

Individuals have a legal right to access the personal data that an organisation holds on them under data protection laws. To exercise this right they can make what is known as a Subject Access Request (SAR).

For more information, email data-protection@bankofengland.co.uk or write to the Information Access Team (TS-Mz), Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London EC2R 8AH or telephone 020 3461 4878.

Please read our privacy notice for information requests, set out below, which explains what we do with your personal data when you make a request.

Information requests privacy notice

When you submit an FoI request or a SAR (for yourself or on behalf of someone else), we collect certain information about you including your name, contact details and anything you choose to disclose in your correspondence.

We collect your personal data to assess your request and prepare our response to you. 

For SARs, we also collect your personal data to verify your identity. If you do not provide certain personal data, then we may not be able to progress the request (for example, because we cannot assess your identification, and therefore, your eligibility to make the request). We may consult with other organisations to seek their views on the processing of your SAR, for example, if your SAR covers personal data held by the Bank that has been received or compiled about you by other organisations.

Our basis to process this data is that it is necessary for us to satisfy a legal obligation. We will keep personal data relating to your request for 10 years.

You have a number of rights under data protection laws. To find out more about those rights, to make a complaint, or to contact our Data Protection Officer, please see our Privacy page.

Compliance statistics

Disclosure log