You don't have to if they've already responded to one. Check their website for responses to previous FOI requests. This is sometimes known as a ‘disclosure log’. You can search for published responses to FOI requests from government departments, agencies and arms length bodies.

You should give:

• your name (not needed if you’re asking for environmental information)
• a contact postal or email address
• a detailed description of the information you want - for example, you might want all information held on a subject, or just a summary

You can ask for information in a particular format,

They must reply within 20 days

Example below:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I trust this email finds you well. I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request access to a specific dataset held by The Animal and Plant Health Agency.

The specific dataset I am interested in is called "Animal housing system". I hoped to find here: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/18c1ebf9-98ca-4bd3-bc55-e6cfa5f70a63/animal-housing-system but it says it is unavailable.

Please provide the information in the form of a digital dataset, ideally as a CSV, ods or Excel file, to facilitate analysis. If the data is held in another format, or releasing it in these formats would contravene the Act for any reason, please advise me as to how I can access it.

If my request is denied in whole or in part, or specific items within the records I seek are withheld from disclosure, then please justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the Act.

I understand that under the Act, I should be entitled to a response within 20 working days. I would be grateful if you could confirm in writing that you have received this request.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you require any further clarification about my request, or if you need any additional information to facilitate your search for this data.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Yours sincerely,

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