Why public records go missing

The record was never made

Freedom of information laws give access to records that exist. They do not oblige a body to write new ones. The UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) says the Act applies only to information already held in recorded form, so an authority does not have to create new information or answer questions from staff knowledge ¹. The ICO adds that compiling a list from existing information is not creating new information ¹.

The starting point is fixed in law. The ICO notes that section 1(4) of the UK Act covers information held at the time the request is received, with room for routine amendments made before the reply ¹.

The record was lawfully destroyed

Most public bodies destroy records on a schedule. In the United States, the Archivist approves disposal of records that lack enough administrative, legal, research or other value to keep, after notice in the Federal Register and public comment ⁶. The National Archives (NARA) issues General Records Schedules for common administrative records, and says their use is mandatory ². The procedures in chapter 33 of title 44 are the only lawful route to dispose of federal records ⁷.

In the UK, records not selected for permanent preservation are to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of under the Public Records Act 1958 ⁸.

The record is held by someone else

A request goes to one body, and the record may sit with another. The ICO says a public authority has to ask a third party for information only where that party holds it on the authority's behalf ¹. It says information an authority can only read in a remote database is not held, and becomes held once the authority saves or prints it ¹.

Some records have moved to an archive. UK departments transfer records selected for preservation to The National Archives no later than 20 years after creation ⁸.

The record was deleted or overwritten

Electronic deletion is not always final. The ICO says information is no longer held once it has been overwritten, but before that it may still be held in a recycle bin or on backups ¹. It says restoring backups for every request would be unreasonable ¹.

The record was lost or destroyed unlawfully

Several laws make deliberate loss a crime or a reportable event. In the UK, a person commits an offence if they alter, deface, block, erase, destroy or conceal a record to prevent disclosure to a requester entitled to it ³. In the United States, agency heads must notify the Archivist of any actual, impending or threatened unlawful removal or destruction of records ⁹.

How often requests end with nothing

These categories are not the same. The Canadian figure counts requests where no information was disclosed ¹⁰.