FOI reviews and appeals compared

Time limits by jurisdiction

Scotland

A requester must ask the authority for a review within 40 working days of its response, or of the end of the 20 working day period if there was no reply ². The authority must reply within 20 working days ². The Commissioner cannot act until a review has been requested and 20 working days have been allowed for the reply ¹.

The appeal to the Commissioner must be made within 6 months of when the applicant received, or should have received, the review response ¹. The Commissioner's appeal page says it is taking up to nine months to allocate cases for investigation after an unprecedented number of appeals since the start of 2025/26 ¹.

Ireland

An application for internal review must be made within 4 weeks of notification of the decision, and the head may allow longer on reasonable grounds ³. The reviewer must be of a higher rank than the original decision maker, and the decision is due within 3 weeks ³.

Review by the Information Commissioner must be sought within 6 months of the decision, or 2 weeks for decisions to extend the time limit and decisions on requests involving third-party information under section 38, with extensions on reasonable grounds ⁴. The Commissioner must decide as soon as may be and, insofar as practicable, within 4 months ⁴.

Canada, India and South Africa

In Canada, a complaint about a request must be made to the Information Commissioner within sixty days after the person receives a refusal notice, gets access, or becomes aware of the grounds ⁵. After the Commissioner's report, the complainant may apply to the Federal Court within 30 business days ⁵.

In India, a first appeal lies to a senior officer within 30 days, and must be decided within 30 days, or 45 days with reasons in writing ⁶. A second appeal lies to the Central or State Information Commission within 90 days, and late appeals can be admitted for sufficient cause ⁶.

In South Africa, an internal appeal must be lodged within 60 days and decided within 30 days ⁷. A complaint to the Information Regulator or an application to court must be made within 180 days ⁷.

United Kingdom and Australia

Under section 50 of the UK Freedom of Information Act 2000, the regulator need not decide a complaint where the complainant has not used the authority's complaints procedure, there was undue delay, the complaint is frivolous or vexatious, or it was withdrawn or abandoned ⁸. A decision notice must set out the right of appeal under section 57 ⁸.

In Australia, the Information Commissioner reported that requests for Information Commissioner reviews rose 42% in 2025-26 ⁹. The average time to finalise a review fell from 13.5 months to 7 months, and 83% were finalised within 12 months, against 67% the year before ⁹. Internal review applications rose 61% to 1,477, and internal reviews affirmed the original decision in 55% of matters, against 62% in 2024-25 ⁹.