FREE TOOL
SAR and FOI
deadline calculator.
Work out when a subject access request, FOI request or EIR request is due, and see how the date was worked out. Free, with no sign-up. Your dates are worked out in your browser and are not sent to us.
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Enter the date the request arrived to see the deadline.
SUBJECT ACCESS REQUESTS
One month.
From the latest of three dates.
For requests received on or after 5 February 2026, the time limit is set by Article 12A of UK GDPR, inserted by section 76 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. You have one month “beginning with the relevant time”, which is the latest of when you receive the request, when you receive identity information you asked for because of reasonable doubts about who is asking, and when any fee for a manifestly unfounded or excessive request is paid.
Extending. You can add two further months where that is necessary because of the complexity or number of the person’s requests. You must give notice, with your reasons, before the first month ends.
Clarifying. If you reasonably need more information to identify what the person wants, the days from the day you ask to the day they answer, both included, do not count. A same-day answer still stops the clock for one day. Asking about something else, such as the format of the response, does not stop it.
WHY A SAR SHOWS TWO DATES
The ICO’s date.
And a safer one.
The ICO method comes from the right of access guidance of the ICO, the data protection regulator. Count to the same date in the following month, or that month’s last day if there is no such date. If that falls on a weekend or public holiday, move to the next working day. Then add any days the clock was stopped, and if that lands on a non-working day, move on again.
The cautious date reads Article 12A more strictly. A month “beginning with” a day normally includes that day, so it ends the day before the same date next month (a day earlier still at some month ends), and Article 12A says nothing about moving a deadline off a weekend. The cautious date is the last working day of that shorter count.
The ICO’s page was last updated on 8 December 2025, before Article 12A came into force. Until it says otherwise, aim for the cautious date and treat the ICO’s as the backstop. The ICO itself says you could adopt a 28-day period “to ensure that you always comply within a calendar month”.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
20 working days.
Without any UK bank holiday.
Section 10 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires a reply “promptly and in any event not later than the twentieth working day following the date of receipt”. The ICO treats the first working day after receipt as day 1, and calls the 20 days a long stop, not a target.
Every UK bank holiday counts. A working day is any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday “in any part of the United Kingdom”. So St Patrick’s Day is a non-working day for an authority in Cornwall, and so was Scotland’s one-off bank holiday on 15 June 2026. A day your own office is closed is still a working day unless it is one of those.
Clarification restarts the count. If you cannot find the information without more detail, the date of receipt becomes the day the clarification arrives, and the 20 days run from the day after.
Fees pause it. Working days from the day you give a fees notice to the day the fee arrives, both included, are left out. The notice must be given within the time for complying. This applies only if the fee is paid within three months of the notice, and a cheque counts once it has cleared.
The public interest. You can take a reasonable extra time to weigh the public interest on a qualified exemption, and the Code of Practice says this should generally be no more than 20 further working days. The ICO says anything longer should be exceptional, and the extra time is for the public interest balance, not for deciding whether an exemption applies. Your refusal notice is still due within the first 20, with an estimate of when you will decide.
SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES
20 school days.
Capped at 60 working days.
Regulations made in 2004, 2009 and 2010 change the limit for schools. The deadline is the earlier of the twentieth working day, leaving out any day that is not a school day, and the sixtieth working day. The ICO says this applies to all schools covered by FOIA, including maintained schools, academies, pupil referral units and state-funded nurseries.
The regulations themselves are narrower. They name governing bodies of maintained schools and maintained nursery schools, schools maintained by the Secretary of State for Defence, proprietors of academies, and the managers of Northern Ireland controlled, voluntary and grant-maintained integrated schools and pupil referral units. If you are a pupil referral unit in England or Wales, a further education college or a nursery that is none of these, they do not name you, so work to 20 working days unless you have taken advice. In a multi-academy trust the count follows the academy’s own school days, so a request about the trust’s central functions needs more thought.
The ICO describes a school day as a day with a session and pupils in attendance, so add your holidays and INSET days to the calculator. The ICO’s worked example is a request on Wednesday 26 July, with the school closing on Friday 28 July and reopening on Monday 11 September: 20 school days end on Wednesday 4 October and 60 working days on Friday 20 October.
These regulations change section 10 of FOIA only. An environmental information request to a school stays on the EIR’s 20 working days.
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
20 working days.
Extendable to 40.
Regulation 5 of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 requires a reply “as soon as possible and no later than 20 working days after the date of receipt”, with a working day defined as in FOIA. Regulation 7 extends this to 40 working days if you reasonably believe the complexity and volume of the information make the earlier limit impracticable. You must tell the requester within the first 20.
Too general a request. You must ask for more particulars as soon as possible and within 20 working days. The 20 working days then run from the day after you receive them.
Advance payment. Only a charge you require in advance affects the clock. You must say so within 20 working days of the request. The days from that notice to the day payment arrives are left out, and you need not act unless it is paid within 60 working days.
WHAT THIS DOES NOT COVER
The cases to
check for yourself.
- Scottish public authorities. Requests to them fall under Scotland’s own legislation. Use the Scottish Information Commissioner’s response calculator.
- Law enforcement processing. Requests under Part 3 of the Data Protection Act 2018 have their own provisions.
- Other FOIA variations. Public records can have 30 working days. The armed forces and information held outside the UK can have up to 60, but only with the agreement of the Information Commission (formerly the Information Commissioner), applied for within 20 working days of receipt.
- School holidays and a subject access request. Holidays do not pause a SAR. A parent’s request for a pupil’s educational record at a maintained school in England is a separate right, with a limit of 15 school days.
- Bank holidays. These come from GOV.UK’s list, which runs to December 2028. A date outside the list shows a warning.
This is a calculator, not legal advice. Your duty is to respond without undue delay or promptly, so reply sooner if you can, rather than treating a date here as a target.
Rules checked on 5 November 2026 against legislation.gov.uk, the ICO’s guidance and GOV.UK.
QUESTIONS
A few things
worth knowing.
When does the clock start if we ask for ID?
On the day the identity information arrives, if that is later than the request and you had reasonable doubts about the person’s identity. The full month then runs from that day. A routine ID request does not move the clock.
Does a SAR deadline move if it falls on a weekend?
The ICO says it moves to the end of the next working day. Article 12A does not say so itself, which is one reason the calculator also shows a cautious date.
Does asking for clarification stop the clock?
For a SAR it pauses the clock from the day you ask to the day they answer. For an FOI or EIR request it does more: the 20 working days start again from the day after the clarification arrives.
Do Scottish and Northern Irish bank holidays count for an English public authority?
Yes, for FOIA and the EIR. A bank holiday in any part of the UK is not a working day, wherever the authority is.
How long does a school have to answer an FOI request?
The earlier of 20 school days and 60 working days following the date of receipt, and it must still respond promptly.