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WhatDoTheyKnow provides proof it sent Freedom Of Information request to AWE, (the Atomic Weapons Establishment)

Tom Pashby, Aug 21, 2026

Digital proof has been shared with 20 Working Days that a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request was sent to AWE (the Atomic Weapons Establishment) – which AWE claimed it didn’t receive.

The FOI request is now the subject of an Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) decision notice – a type of enforcement action – over its failure to respond to a FOI request sent by 20 Working Days on 6 May, via WhatDoTheyKnow.

WhatDoTheyKnow describes itself as “a site to help anyone submit a Freedom of Information request. WhatDoTheyKnow also publishes and archives requests and responses, building a massive archive of information.” It is built by a pro-democracy and transparency non-governmental organisation called MySociety.

The decision notice has since been published on the ICO’s website. The ICO explains what decision notices are. It says: “When we do take formal enforcement action, this will likely be in the form of a decision notice.

“A decision notice is a formal document that explains whether the Information Commissioner thinks a public authority has complied with the law when dealing with a specific request.”

The decision notice it issued to AWE about the 6 May FOI request said: “A public authority will breach section 10 of FOIA if it fails to respond to a request within 20 working days.

“Based on evidence available to the Commissioner, by the date of this notice the public authority has not issued a substantive response to this request. Therefore the Commissioner finds a breach of section 10.”

Setting out the next steps required by the ICO, it said: “The public authority must provide a substantive response to the request in accordance with its obligations under FOIA.

“The public authority must take this step within 30 calendar days of the date of this decision notice. Failure to comply may result in the Commissioner making written certification of this fact to the High Court pursuant to section 54 of FOIA and may be dealt with as a contempt of court.”

20 Working Days offered AWE the opportunity to comment on the decision notice ahead of publication of its 12 August article covering the enforcement action.

The day after the article was published, on 13 August, an AWE spokesperson said: “AWE has received, and processed, previous requests from the requestor (FOI2026-020, FOI2026-042 and FOI2026-044) and has also received and acknowledged FOI2026-047) via the WhatDoTheyKnow platform. A response to that request is currently being considered.

“However a further request, understood to have been submitted on 6th May, was not received by AWE. AWE was therefore unaware of its existence until contacted by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in July.

“Following correspondence with the ICO, the ICO issued a Decision Notice on 10 August 2026, requiring AWE to provide a substantive response within 20 working days.

“AWE is processing this and has formally acknowledged this (reference FOI2026-049). A response will be provided within the applicable time limit.”

The spokesperson added: “This is equivalent to a signed-for physical letter delivery where the receptionist signs for the letter. Whether that letter got routed to the desk of the responsible person is the authority’s responsibility and out of our control.”

WhatDoTheyKnow later provided additional technical information to show it had evidence that the message was sent properly and received by AWE’s systems.

All the evidence shared by WhatDoTheyKnow was forwarded by 20 Working Days to AWE.

In response to the digital evidence, an AWE spokesperson said: “We have carried out enquiries using the additional log information supplied by [20 Working Days], but have not been able to locate any reference to the message that you are referring to.

“Our position therefore remains that the message in question was not responded to because it was not received by the team dealing with such requests. As stated previously, the team now has the request and will respond within the relevant timescales.”

August 21, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, UK