In principle, all information held in a recorded form by public authorities can be accessed under access to information laws, unless there is a strong reason to refuse access (See Point 8 below on exceptions).

Some laws refer to “access to information” and others to “access to documents”. Normally the definitions overlap and both are very wide concepts and include many kinds of formats on which information is held (including photographs, videos, DVDs, etc.)  In practice there is little difference, but it is useful to know what the law says so that you can formulate your request in a way that is most likely to result in an answer.

The new Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents defines “official documents” as “all information recorded in any form, drawn up or received and held by public authorities” (Article 1.2.b).

The EU Regulation 1049/2001 defines “document” as

“any content whatever its medium (written on paper or stored in electronic form or as a sound, visual or audiovisual recording) concerning a matter relating to the policies, activities and decisions falling within the institution's sphere of responsibility” and this applies to “all documents held by an institution, that is to say, documents drawn up or received by it and in its possession, in all areas of activity of the European Union.”

Note: Requests to the EU should specifically mention “documents” or they may be processed under the Code of Good Administrative Procedure which refers to the “right to information” but does not have the same timelines nor appeals possibilities.

Box B: Access to Information or Documents?

Note: It is important to know if your law is an access to documents or access to information law because this can affect how you formulate the question – more advice about this is given in Section III.  The following chart shows whether the main access to information law of a country refers primarily to documents or information: