Government & Public Sector

Records Request Agent

Starts the clock on the request nobody recognised as one

Version 2Published Sep 2, 2026
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3 of 9 requests are late or about to be.

9 requests checked. 3 are flagged for 7 points; the worst is 15 days from its limit.

Answer REQ-704 first. Data subject access requests are the most late.

Extensions allowed for complex cases and clock-stopping questions to the requester are not in the data.

7
3/9
Requests flagged
3
9
Risk points
7
Longest (days)
15
Share flagged
33%

Why rows were flagged

3
  • Late or answered late67%
  • Due within 5 days33%

Value flagged by Request type

  • Data subject access2
  • Freedom of information1

Items to act on, worst first

ItemRequest typeValueDays late or leftWhy
REQ-704Freedom of information315Late or answered late
REQ-702Data subject access311Late or answered late
REQ-709Data subject access11Due within 5 days

What to do this week

  • Reply to REQ-704 today: it is the most overdue.
  • Tell the requester about any delay and the reason before the limit passes.
  • Log each request on the day it arrives, with its limit date.

Do

  • Fix the highest-risk item first, then run the check again on fresh data.

Don't

  • Don't act on one row alone: open the source record first.

How to improve

  • Add more detail per row (owner, date, source) so the next report can trace each item.
  • Add a second period of data so the next report can show whether things are improving.

Demo

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Overview

Public bodies miss information-request deadlines for one reason far more often than any other: nobody recognised the request. It arrives worded as a complaint or buried in a longer letter, so it is never logged — and the statutory clock starts regardless. By the time someone finds it, the only options left are a late response or an appeal.

This agent reads incoming correspondence for requests, whatever they are called and however they are worded, and reports when each clock started and when it runs out. It separates the parts that can be answered from the parts that need a decision, and drafts the answerable ones from the material you hold.

What it will not do is decide to withhold anything. Applying an exemption is a challengeable decision that a named person must own, so the agent identifies which parts appear to engage one, names the exemption, and hands it over. It also flags personal data that would need removing before anything is released — the failure that turns a routine response into a breach.

Benefits

The clock never runs unseen

The commonest cause of an upheld complaint.

Routine parts answered quickly

Instead of waiting behind the one contested paragraph.

A defensible file

What was identified, when, and what was referred to whom.

What it does

  • Finds the unrecognised request

    A request worded as a complaint is still a request, and the clock starts whether anyone logged it or not.

  • Tracks the statutory clock

    When it started, when it expires, and which requests are closest — from your own policy's rules.

  • Splits answerable from decidable

    Most requests are partly routine. Those parts should not wait on the part that needs a decision.

  • Names the exemption, never applies it

    Withholding is a challengeable decision a named person must own. It identifies and routes; it does not decide.

  • Flags personal data before release

    Third-party data in a response is how a routine answer becomes a breach.

  • Sends nothing

    It drafts and tracks. Responses go out under a person's name, by their hand.

What this changes

What this changes about your week

It takes over
Reading incoming correspondence for requests nobody logged as requests.
Done today by
A records officer, if there is one, and often nobody.
How often
Every day the post arrives; the statutory clock does not pause.
Typical manual effort
Reviewing a day of correspondence properly is an hour that is never available.

Why Government & Public Sector in particular. The deadline is missed because the request was worded as a complaint and never recognised. The clock started anyway, and by the time it surfaces the only options left are a late response or an appeal.

  • Runs unattended

    Started by you or by an event, and it finishes on its own. Nothing waits for someone to be at a desk.

  • The same standard every time

    The two-hundredth item is held to the bar the first one was. Consistency is the part people cannot sustain.

  • It cannot act on its own

    Records Request Agent has no path to sending, spending or committing. That limit is why its output is safe to act on.

How it runs

This agent runs server-side through the PROMIVO runtime. Each run is logged step by step and every tool call is permission-checked before it executes.

  1. 1InputValidated against the agent input schema
  2. 2Modelclaude-opus-5 with automatic fallback
  3. 3Toolssearch_knowledge, extract_structured_data
  4. 4PermissionsRuns READ actions automatically; anything higher waits for approval
  5. 5OutputStructured result matching the output schema
  6. 6LoggingTokens, duration and every step recorded

Requirements

Integrations

No integrations required.

Before you start

  • The correspondence to review
  • A knowledge base holding your access policy and deadlines
  • Requires the All-Access plan or higher

Use cases

Daily correspondence review

Find requests before they become overdue.

A backlog

Establish which clocks have already run out.

Before release

Check what would need redacting.

Pricing

All-Access

Billed monthly through your PROMIVO subscription. Cancel at any time.

Runs consume your plan allowance for agent executions and tokens. See plan limits

FAQ

Does it decide what to withhold?

No. Applying an exemption is a decision that can be appealed and must be owned by a person. It identifies which parts appear to engage one and names it, so the decision is made faster and with the reasoning in front of you.

Does it redact automatically?

No. It flags personal and third-party data for a person to remove. Automated redaction that misses one line is worse than no redaction, because it is trusted.

Which regime does it apply?

Whatever you load — your own policy and the deadlines that apply to you. Access regimes differ by country and body, and an agent quoting a remembered one would be quoting the wrong one.

Reviews

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