Public Records / FOI Request Form — shared by the community

Who this template is for

Public Records / FOI Request Form is built for councils, agencies and public bodies who need to run a public request or application to a consistent standard.

• Councils, agencies and public bodies working in government & public sector.
• Teams who need to run a public request or application to a consistent standard without writing code or paying for a custom build.
• Anyone replacing paper forms that are slow to process and hard to audit with one structured record per enquiry.
• Respondents are residents and applicants — the form asks them 17 questions across 3 screens.

Why this form is useful

It removes the cost of paper forms that are slow to process and hard to audit and turns each submission into a record your team can act on immediately.

• 8 questions are required, so submissions arrive complete instead of needing a follow-up email.
• It collects a verified email address so replies and confirmations land.
• It captures a phone number for urgent follow-up.
• It accepts a document or photo upload as evidence.
• It pins the request to a specific date.
• It captures a full postal address.
• It captures a numeric value you can filter and sort on.
• Conditional logic hides 3 questions until they are relevant — shorter forms convert better than long ones.

How to use this template

From copy to live form is a few minutes of work, and every step is reversible.

1. 1Press “Use this template” — a fresh copy of Public Records / FOI Request Form lands in your workspace, ready to edit.
2. 2Rename or delete any question, and change what is required. Nothing here is fixed.
3. 3Open Notifications and add the email addresses that should be alerted on each submission; add an auto-reply to the respondent if the form collects an email address.
4. 4Check the upload limits on the file question so respondents can attach what you actually need.
5. 5Publish it, then either share the link directly or paste the embed snippet into your site — the embedded form resizes to fit and loads no marketing or advertising trackers.
6. 6Watch responses land in Submissions, where you can filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF.

Logic and conditions blueprint

Exactly how this form behaves as it is answered — 3 conditional rules ship with it.

• Features advanced show logic: if “Are you requesting your own personal data?” is Yes, the form dynamically exposes “Proof of identity”. Otherwise that question never appears.
• Features conditional validation: if “Are you making this request on behalf of someone else?” is Yes, “Who are you acting for, and do you have their authority?” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent.
• Features advanced show logic: if “Preferred format” is Inspection in person, the form dynamically exposes “Preferred dates for inspection”. Otherwise that question never appears.
• All 3 rules are editable in the Logic tab, and the built-in checker warns about rules that contradict each other.