Use Case 02 · Government & Public Sector

Freedom of Information Request Processing

Government departments receive thousands of FOI requests annually, each requiring legal review, document search across multiple systems, disclosure decisions, and response drafting within a 20-working-day statutory deadline that carries significant reputational risk if missed.

The Challenge

Why This Happens

FOI requests often require searching 5–12 years of archived documents, emails, and policy files across disparate SharePoint sites and legacy document stores. There is no unified search — each request is a manual archaeological exercise with significant risk of missing relevant material and exposing the department to ICO scrutiny.

How Copilot & M365 Address This
  1. 1Graph connectors search the full document estateDepartment SharePoint, archived emails, and Teams history searched simultaneously for relevant documents.
  2. 2Response letters and exemption justifications draftedCopilot drafts from approved legal templates — consistent language, correct statutory exemption citations.
  3. 3Borderline disclosure decisions flagged for Legal reviewCopilot identifies grey-area decisions and provides supporting analysis to guide the Legal team's judgment.
  4. 4Teams Approvals manages sign-off against statutory deadlineLegal, IA, and Director sign-off tracked with automatic deadline alerts — zero missed 20-day windows.

Impact & Results

Impact Metrics
8.4d→3.2dAverage response preparation time
71%→96%Statutory deadline compliance
58%Legal review time per FOI reduced
Measured via: ICO registered deadline compliance data. Internal case management timestamps. Legal team time tracking pre/post.
“

We were consistently failing our 20-day deadline and it was becoming a reputational issue. Within three months of deploying Copilot our compliance rate went above 95% and stayed there. The ICO audit last year was the smoothest we've ever had.

YB
Yasmine Boumediene
Director of Citizen Services, Government Agency, Algiers

  Copilot 365 Tools

ROI Calculator (Free) Copilot Readiness Kit ($249) Copilot Safe Scan ($299/mo)

More Government Use Cases

Use Case 01

Policy Document Drafting & Ministerial Briefings
Use Case 03

Legislative Committee Meeting Preparation
Use Case 04

Constituent Correspondence Management
Use Case 05

Cross-Departmental Performance Reporting
Use Case 06

Procurement Documentation & Contract Management

From Our Blog

Deeper reading on this topic — guides, frameworks and real-world perspectives.

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