WhatDoTheyKnow Policy:Authority descriptions

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.

Public notes can be added to any public authority on the site, text can be inputted in HTML format.

At present the public notes are used for five main purposes:

• providing a general description of the organisation
• explaining specific limitations in the scope of FOI for a particular authority (e.g. Bank of England)
• helping to ensure requests are directed to the right place
• indicating that an authority is defunct/identifying the successor organisation
• making it clear that an authority is not in fact subject to FOI and justifying its inclusion on the site

General descriptions

A good general descriptions should:

• be clear and easy read
• enable users to understand what a body is and what it is responsible for doing
• help to ensure that users send their request to 'the right authority'
• include alternative names by which an authority is known/relevant search terms
• unbiased
• be less than about 120 words long, if the description is too long users will have to scroll down to find the "Make a new Freedom of Information request" link

Tag

• has description - for authorities which already have a reasonably complete description