How to request public information without missing the response deadline

When this guide is useful

Use this guide when you need a copy of a de­ci­sion, es­ti­mate, con­tract, list, sta­tis­tics, minutes, cor­re­spon­dence, or other record­ed data held under the law by a public au­thor­i­ty, mu­nic­i­pal in­sti­tu­tion, or another in­for­ma­tion holder. A request pro­vides access to in­for­ma­tion; it does not replace an ap­pli­ca­tion for a service, a com­plaint about a vi­o­la­tion, or a demand for a new de­ci­sion.

The main mistake happens before the request is sent: someone de­scribes a problem, asks for an in­ves­ti­ga­tion, and calls it an in­for­ma­tion request. If you need an au­thor­i­ty to review facts or take action, check the pro­ce­dure for citizen appeals. The prac­ti­cal dif­fer­ence is shown in the sep­a­rate guide to con­tact­ing the pros­e­cu­tor’s office: there, the subject is a request or com­plaint, not access to records that already exist.

For Kyiv and Kyiv region, choose the ad­dressee by its func­tion, not by the nearest build­ing or a name in search results. A city de­part­ment, dis­trict state ad­min­is­tra­tion, re­gion­al au­thor­i­ty, and mu­nic­i­pal en­ter­prise may hold dif­fer­ent records. Check the current name and of­fi­cial sub­mis­sion channel on the spe­cif­ic au­thor­i­ty’s website im­me­di­ate­ly before sub­mit­ting; this guide does not repeat ad­dress­es and opening hours that may change.

Applicable period and rules

A request may be made orally, in writing, or in another form allowed by law, but a written copy and proof of receipt make the dead­line easier to track. Provide the re­quester’s name or or­ga­ni­za­tion, contact details for the re­sponse, a general de­scrip­tion of the in­for­ma­tion or doc­u­ment details if known, and the date and sig­na­ture for a written request. You do not have to prove a per­son­al in­ter­est in the in­for­ma­tion.

The general re­sponse dead­line is no later than five working days from receipt. The day of receipt is ex­clud­ed, so the count starts the fol­low­ing day. The in­for­ma­tion request re­sponse dead­line cal­cu­la­tor counts working days using a trans­par­ent Monday-to-Friday model and shows the orig­i­nal and ex­tend­ed dead­lines sep­a­rate­ly.

If a request covers a large volume of in­for­ma­tion or re­quires search­ing through a sig­nif­i­cant amount of data, the in­for­ma­tion holder may extend the re­sponse period to a total of 20 working days. This does not mean 20 ad­di­tion­al days after the first five. The holder must notify you in writing of the ex­ten­sion, its reason, and the new dead­line no later than the orig­i­nal five working days.

The 48-hour dead­line applies only to cases spec­i­fied in Part 2 of Article 20, in­clud­ing in­for­ma­tion needed to protect life or liberty, in­for­ma­tion about the en­vi­ron­ment, ac­ci­dents, dis­as­ters, dan­ger­ous natural events, and other cir­cum­stances ex­press­ly pro­vid­ed by law. The request must specif­i­cal­ly explain how it relates to one of those grounds. An exact cal­cu­la­tion re­quires a con­firmed date and time of receipt; 48 hours is a con­tin­u­ous period, not two working days.

Steps to take

First, state the result as a list of in­for­ma­tion that already exists: “provide an elec­tron­ic copy of the de­ci­sion and its at­tach­ments,” “state the actual ex­pen­di­ture for a spec­i­fied period,” or “provide a list of con­tracts with spec­i­fied fields.” If you do not know the doc­u­ment number, add the search details you do know, such as the event date, topic, period, de­part­ment, or con­tract party.

Then iden­ti­fy the in­for­ma­tion holder. Ask who created the doc­u­ment, who re­ceived it while ex­er­cis­ing public powers, and who is re­quired to retain it. The fact that an au­thor­i­ty over­sees a par­tic­u­lar area or is located in Kyiv does not prove that it holds spe­cif­ic in­for­ma­tion. If the ad­dressee does not hold the data but knows the proper in­for­ma­tion holder, the law pro­vides for for­ward­ing the request and no­ti­fy­ing the re­quester at the same time.

Submit the request through an of­fi­cial channel and keep an un­changed copy. For an elec­tron­ic request, save the email, at­tach­ments, tech­ni­cal con­fir­ma­tion, and reg­is­tra­tion notice. For postal mail, keep the receipt and in­ven­to­ry of en­clo­sures; for an in-person filing, get a copy stamped with the in­com­ing ref­er­ence. If the request is for­ward­ed, obtain or find con­fir­ma­tion of the date the proper in­for­ma­tion holder re­ceived it and count the dead­line from that date.

For an urgent request, add a short, sep­a­rate jus­ti­fi­ca­tion: iden­ti­fy the spe­cif­ic Article 20 ground, explain the risk from delay, and show how the re­quest­ed in­for­ma­tion relates to pro­tect­ing the rel­e­vant in­ter­est. The word “urgent,” public in­ter­est, or a wish to receive an answer sooner does not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly create a 48-hour dead­line.

What to check before submitting

Read the request itself without the in­tro­duc­tion. Can it be an­swered with a copy or extract of ex­ist­ing data? Are the period and scope clear? Does the text ask for a new legal analy­sis, an ex­pla­na­tion of motives, an in­ves­ti­ga­tion, or a de­ci­sion? If a request and a com­plaint are mixed in one letter, split them into two doc­u­ments with dif­fer­ent sub­jects and dead­lines.

Do not ask for an un­nec­es­sar­i­ly broad set of records “for all years” if a spe­cif­ic period or doc­u­ment type is enough for your purpose. A large scope in­creas­es the risk of a lawful ex­ten­sion, copying costs, and con­fu­sion about what is re­quest­ed. At the same time, do not narrow the request so much that you omit at­tach­ments needed to un­der­stand the main doc­u­ment.

After re­ceiv­ing a re­sponse, compare each request item with the doc­u­ment pro­vid­ed, any refusal, or the ex­pla­na­tion. A re­stric­tion should not rely only on a generic label such as “of­fi­cial in­for­ma­tion” or “martial law”; assess whether the legal grounds and rea­son­ing apply to the spe­cif­ic content. Martial law alone does not pause all dead­lines or au­to­mat­i­cal­ly allow an au­thor­i­ty to ignore any request.

If silence or a refusal vi­o­lates your right, the next step depends on the doc­u­ment and your goal: a com­plaint to the au­thor­i­ty’s head, an appeal to the Ukrain­ian Par­lia­ment Com­mis­sion­er for Human Rights, or an ad­min­is­tra­tive court claim. Before filing, check the remedy and dead­line in the guide to chal­leng­ing a public au­thor­i­ty de­ci­sion.

When to consult a lawyer

A legal review is useful when several au­thor­i­ties keep for­ward­ing the request to one another; a general ex­pla­na­tion is pro­vid­ed instead of a doc­u­ment; some data is with­held without a clear reason; an ex­ten­sion was sent late or without jus­ti­fi­ca­tion; or urgent access is needed because of a risk to life, liberty, or safety.

For a matter in Kyiv or Kyiv region, a lawyer can help iden­ti­fy who ac­tu­al­ly holds the data across city, dis­trict, re­gion­al, and mu­nic­i­pal levels; narrow the request without losing im­por­tant at­tach­ments; doc­u­ment a missed dead­line; and choose a pro­por­tion­ate appeal. This is es­pe­cial­ly useful when the in­for­ma­tion is needed for another case and delay affects a sep­a­rate pro­ce­dur­al dead­line.