FOI officers · Third parties · Applicants
Consult third parties, redact exemptions, and release on time.
FOI teams share documents with third parties at View only for consultation, redact exempt material, and release the decision through a link that expires. Read receipts help show when each step happened.
- Third-party consultation
- View only, with access that ends.
- Exemptions
- Redacted in the PDF, original kept.
- Release
- Through a link that expires.
- Timeline
- Read receipts show when each party opened it.
Why FOI requests run late
An FOI request runs to a statutory clock, and consulting third parties and redacting exemptions both eat into it.
Today
- Third-party consultation by email attachment
- Redaction in a separate tool
- Releases on disc or by email
- Hard to show when a party received documents
With DekkoCORE
- Third parties read documents View only
- Redaction where the documents are
- Release through a link that expires
- Read receipts show when it was opened
How it works in DekkoCORE
One request, from the documents in scope to the release.
Step 1
Gather the documents
Collect the documents in scope into the request's folder.
- Hub folders
Step 2
Consult third parties
Share the relevant documents with each third party at View only, until the consultation closes.
- View only
- Access expiry
Step 3
Redact exemptions
Redact exempt material from the PDFs. The originals are kept unredacted.
- Redaction
Step 4
Release the decision
Release the documents to the applicant through a link that expires.
- Expiring link
Step 5
Keep the timeline
Read receipts on your messages show when each party opened them.
- Read receipts
Who gets what access
A typical request. You can change or remove anyone's access at any time.
FOI officers
Full permissions
Run the request and do the redaction.
Decision maker
Editor
Reviews the redactions and signs off.
Third parties
View only, until consultation closes
Comment on documents that concern them.
Applicant
Expiring link
Gets the released documents.
The bars show a permission level, from Listing only (one bar) to Full permissions (seven).
Questions
Can third parties download the documents we consult them on?
Not with View only. They read the documents in the browser, and their access ends on the date you set.
Does redaction keep the original?
Yes. Redaction makes a new copy with the redactions burned in, and the original stays unredacted.
Can we see when the applicant downloads the release?
A link that works without signing in doesn't record who downloaded. If you need that record, share the release with the applicant as a named user, and each download is logged.
Does redaction work on scanned documents?
Redaction works on PDFs. A search finds words in a PDF's text, so scanned pages without a text layer need to be redacted by hand.
How is this different from a privacy access request?
A privacy request asks for a person's own information. FOI covers any government document, which often means consulting third parties before release.
Processing FOI requests?
Tell us how consultation, redaction and release work today. We'll show you the same request in DekkoCORE.