WhatDoTheyKnow Policy:Changing name of authorities

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This page is based on an extract of WhatDoTheyKnow policy documentation. Please address any queries to WhatDoTheyKnow.com.

The process of developing policies is ongoing and changes are to be expected.

Please only rename authorities for minor or typographical changes. e.g. dropping a "District" is pretty minor, so a rename makes sense. Likewise spelling mistakes.

If the name change is substantial, please instead make the old authority a DefunctAuthorities, and create a new one, linking the two together through notes.

This is because the name changes on all request pages, even quite old archive ones. So if the authority has a substantial name change, it would be altering history to change it on all those pages as well. Usually big name changes are linked to some kind of reorganisation, so this isn't so bad.