Request your personal information
If you believe that the FCO holds personal data relevant to you in our offices in the UK or overseas (including FCO Services), you can request it from the FCO. This page will give you advice and tips on requesting your personal information.
What to include in your request:
- Your request for your personal data must be in writing. It would be helpful if you could detail where you believe personal data may be held about you in the FCO. This will help us to locate and provide you with all of your personal information that you are entitled to see.
- You must also include proof of ID and address with your written request. This is to ensure that personal data is only released to the person to whom the data is relevant. These can be:
- a copy of your photo ID such as your passport or drivers license, and
- a recent utility bill. Please note that this must be an original utility bill. We will not accept copies.
An member of the Information Rights Team may contact you if we require further information from you.
Where to send your request:
You should send your request in the post to:
Information Rights Team
Information Management Group
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Old Admiralty Building
The Mall
London
SW1A 2PA
For any enquires, please call us on + 44 (020) 7008 0123 or email us via our Request Form or to dp-foi.img@fco.gov.uk .
Once we have received your request:
We will acknowledge your request and give you your own unique reference number. We will respond to your request within 40 calendar days. The 40 day period will begin from either:
• the date we receive proof of identification from you, or
• the date on which we receive any further information that we may request in order to locate your personal data.
When we acknowledge your request, we will confirm the date for which you should expect a reply.
Visa related requests
From 1 April 2009 all requests received by the FCO for information held by the United Kingdom Borders Agency (UKBA) will be passed to the UKBA to handle. Please note that UKBA charge £10 for processing all requests for information under the Data Protection Act 1998. Contact for UKBA are at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/navigation/foi/
If you are not happy with our response:
If you are not happy with how your request was handled or the decision we have made, you have the right to complain. Please see our complaints page for more information on how to do this.