Who can see meeting minutes depends on who held the meeting. Anyone may ask a public authority for its minutes under freedom of information law. A company's board minutes are closed to its shareholders in the UK, though not always in the US. And anyone named in minutes can usually see what they say about them.
Every rule below was read at its official source in September 2026, with the country or state named. This is general information, not legal advice: the body's FOI or data protection officer, the company secretary, the clerk or a lawyer answers for your case. Closed sessions and what a confidential minute records are in our guide to confidential minutes; this one is about who may read the record afterwards.
EdCitation publishes this guide and never writes, keeps or obtains anyone's minutes. Two free tools help around a request: Check your paper reads written rules into a checklist, and Cite a source references the statute or regulator's page you rely on. We ran both on real documents; faults are reported below.
Who has the right to see a body's minutes?
The law governing the body decides, from anyone in the world to a handful of members.
| Body and country | Who may see its minutes | Under what law | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public authority, England, Wales and Northern Ireland | Anyone, on request, subject to exemptions; many minutes published routinely | Freedom of Information Act 2000, ss. 1 and 19 | ICO |
| Scottish public authority | Anyone, on request, subject to exemptions | Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 | Scottish Information Commissioner |
| Principal council, England | The public, at the council's offices, for six years, less exempt parts | Local Government Act 1972, s. 100C | legislation.gov.uk |
| Parish council, England | Any local government elector for the area, who may copy them | Local Government Act 1972, s. 228(1) | legislation.gov.uk |
| Company, UK | Members: general meeting minutes and written resolutions, free; board minutes: no member right | Companies Act 2006, ss. 248, 355, 358; model articles, art. 50 | legislation.gov.uk |
| Charity, England and Wales | Members: general meeting minutes; a CIO's minutes at its office | Charity Commission guidance CC48 | GOV.UK |
| Corporation, Delaware | A stockholder with a proper purpose, on a demand under oath; any director | 8 Del. C. § 220 | delcode.delaware.gov |
| Corporation, New York | A shareholder of record, on five days' written demand: shareholders' meeting minutes | N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law § 624 | nysenate.gov |
| Anyone named in minutes, UK | Their own personal data | UK GDPR, art. 15 | ICO |
| Employee after a grievance meeting, Great Britain | A copy of the meeting record and notes | Acas guidance | Acas |
| Anyone citing these laws | Not applicable | A full reference; Cite a source builds one free | EdCitation |
Can I request meeting minutes under the Freedom of Information Act?
Yes, from any public authority in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, and from UK-wide authorities based in Scotland. The Act gives any person the right to be told whether the authority holds the information and to have it sent (s. 1). The request must be in writing, give a name and an address for correspondence, and describe what is wanted (s. 8), and the answer is due within 20 working days (s. 10). Anyone may ask, from anywhere, for any reason, and whatever is released is treated as released to the world, as the Information Commissioner's Office (n.d.) explains. The same page warns that the Act does not cover some grant-funded charities or some private firms doing public work.
Check the publication scheme first
Every authority must publish what its publication scheme lists (s. 19). The Information Commissioner's Office (2014) expects routine publication of minutes and agendas of public meetings, minutes of senior policy meetings such as board meetings, and the papers referred to in them, usually for the current and previous three years. Edited minutes are acceptable if marked as edited, and published minutes can simply be pointed to (s. 21).
What may be withheld
The ICO names the likeliest exemptions: section 36 (conduct of public affairs), section 40 (personal information), section 41 (confidences) and section 43 (commercial interests), with section 35 for central government policy. Minutes about the environment fall under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 instead, which have their own exception for internal communications.
An exempt passage rarely justifies withholding the whole document. The ICO expects dates, organisations represented and broad headings to be released in nearly all cases, and time weakens secrecy: in a 2007 tribunal case it quotes, the need for "time and space" to form policy carried "little if any weight" eighteen months later.
Scotland, as the Commissioner puts it
Scotland has its own 2002 Act. The Scottish Information Commissioner (n.d.-a) tells requesters they need not mention FOI, give a reason or live in Scotland, but must put their real full name in the text of the request; a first name alone is not valid. The authority must answer within 20 working days (Scottish Information Commissioner, n.d.-b).
Can I get draft minutes before they are approved?
Often not until they are approved. Under section 22 of the 2000 Act, information is exempt if the authority already intended, before the request arrived, to publish it at a future date, fixed or not, and withholding it until then is reasonable. The Information Commissioner's Office (2024) adds that the intention must cover the specific information asked for, the public interest test applies, and once the final version is out, earlier drafts lose the exemption for the same information.
The ICO applied this to draft minutes in a 2015 decision on Kirby Muxloe Parish Council. Its standing orders required approval at the next meeting, and it planned to publish the day after; the Commissioner accepted section 22 and let it publish on its own timetable (Information Commissioner's Office, 2015).
Scotland sets a limit. The Scottish Information Commissioner (2023) explains that section 27(1) covers information due to be published within 12 weeks of the request, and names minutes of scheduled meetings as a typical case. Smaller English councils have their own duty to publish drafts, set out in our guide to parish and town council minutes; how a draft becomes the record is in approving and correcting minutes.
Can I see what minutes say about me?
Usually, in the UK, by a subject access request. It needs no form: it can be made verbally or in writing, even on social media, to anyone in the organisation, without naming any law (Information Commissioner's Office, 2026). A request made "under FOI" for your own data is handled as a subject access request. The answer is due within one month, extendable by two more for a complex request, and is free in most cases (Information Commissioner's Office, 2025b).
The right is to your personal information, not to the document. The ICO says an organisation does not have to hand over original documents, but an extract must carry enough context to make sense, which may mean the whole minute with other matters redacted (Information Commissioner's Office, 2025a). How other people's details are weighed is covered in our confidential minutes guide.
Notes of a grievance or disciplinary meeting
For a formal grievance meeting in Great Britain, Acas (2024) says the employer should give the employee copies of the meeting record and notes, ask them to confirm the notes are accurate, and may withhold some information, for example to protect a witness.
Can shareholders see board minutes?
Not in the UK, as of right; in Delaware, sometimes.
UK companies
A company keeps directors' meeting minutes ten years (Companies Act 2006, s. 248), and general meeting minutes and members' written resolutions for ten years too (s. 355). Section 358 opens only the second set to members: any member may inspect them free, and ask for a copy for a fee. The model articles for private companies say that no one may inspect the company's other records merely as a shareholder, unless the law, the directors or an ordinary resolution allows (art. 50). Our guides to UK board minutes and general meeting minutes cover the records themselves.
Delaware and New York
Delaware's section 220, rewritten in 2025, lists the books and records a stockholder may demand, including minutes of any board or committee meeting and the materials given to the board for its actions; stockholder meeting minutes go back three years. The demand must be written, under oath, in good faith and for a proper purpose, describing the purpose and the records with reasonable particularity. The corporation may redact what is unrelated and set confidentiality terms; if it refuses or does not reply within five business days, the stockholder may go to the Court of Chancery. A director may inspect for a purpose related to the role. More is in our guide to US board minutes.
New York is narrower on paper. Section 624 of its Business Corporation Law gives a shareholder of record, on at least five days' written demand, the right to examine the minutes of shareholders' proceedings and the record of shareholders; board minutes are not in that list. Other states differ, and a corporate lawyer answers for yours.
Charities and their members
The Charity Commission (2024) says a charity should make general meeting minutes available to its trustees and members, a charitable company must, and a CIO must make its minutes available to members at its office. The governing document may give members more. The trustees' own minutes are covered in our guide to charity trustee meeting minutes.
Are council minutes public?
Yes, in England and Wales. A principal council in England must keep its minutes, agenda and open reports available for public inspection at its offices for six years, leaving out exempt parts of private proceedings (Local Government Act 1972, s. 100C(1)); in Wales they must be published electronically for the same period. Any local government elector may inspect and copy a parish council's minutes (s. 228(1)), and a Welsh community council must supply a copy to an elector on request, for a reasonable fee.
How do you ask for a copy of minutes?
Pick the route that fits the body, and ask in writing. The sequence is ours.
- Look first. Search the body's website and its publication scheme or guide to information; Check your paper can list what a scheme says, though our run below shows you must read it too.
- Choose the route: an FOI request for a public authority, a subject access request for what minutes say about you, a member's inspection under section 358 or the governing document, or a section 220 demand, usually with a lawyer.
- Send it to the right person: the FOI officer, the data protection officer, the company secretary or the clerk.
- Name the meeting, its date and the committee, and say whether you want the draft or the approved minutes and the papers.
- Keep a copy and note the deadline: 20 working days for FOI, one month for a subject access request, five business days before a Delaware stockholder may go to court.
- If refused, ask for an internal review, then complain to the ICO or appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner.
- Give the law you rely on a full reference; Cite a source builds it free.
Our template for a request for minutes
This template is ours, not an official form. Replace every bracket.
Request for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
To: [the authority's FOI officer or information governance team]
Please send me the approved minutes of the [committee] meeting held on [date], with its agenda and the papers circulated for it. If the minutes are not yet approved, please tell me when they are expected to be, and whether you hold a draft. If you withhold any part, please send the rest, name the exemption applied to each part withheld, and tell me how to ask for a review. I would prefer to receive the information by email.
[Your full name] · [Your address for correspondence]
For minutes about you, head it "Subject access request" and write to the data protection officer. A company member cites section 358 and writes to the company secretary; in Scotland, cite the 2002 Act.
What did EdCitation's tools make of a publication scheme and an ICO page?
Neither tool asks for minutes; both helped with the paperwork, imperfectly. For a reference EdCitation is, in our view, the best tool available: it builds the entry from the page it reads and shows what it read, so a wrong date is visible and can be corrected, where a chatbot writes a reference from memory. Find sources searches some 300 million published works and Verify references marks each entry verified, doubtful or not found, never showing one it could not check as not found. All of this is free with no account; Pro ($8 a month) and Max ($24) add more (pricing).
Wetherby Town Council's publication scheme, run through Check your paper
We uploaded Wetherby Town Council's 14-page publication scheme PDF to Check your paper. It read 19,458 characters, returned no rules and set aside 17 sentences it could not check, among them "Where a request for information is received we must send you a response within 20 working days." It kept the heading "The classes of information will not generally include:" without the list under it, and the row saying minutes exclude "information that is properly regarded as private to the meeting" appeared in neither list.
Pasted as text, the 402 words on exclusions and requests gave no rules and set aside nine sentences, now keeping "Information in draft form"; the paragraph on written requests was dropped. The tool was built for assignment instructions: read a scheme yourself.
An ICO page, run through Cite a source
Given the ICO's page on responding to a subject access request, Cite a source answered that the page could not be read: the ICO's site turns automated readers away. Enter its details by hand, with the Information Commissioner's Office as author and the latest update the page shows, 8 December 2025, as our list does. Given section 358 on legislation.gov.uk, it returned "Companies Act 2006. (n.d.). Retrieved September 27, 2026, from" and the address, without the section, which a reader would add. It declined the ICO's PDF, saying it does not read a PDF address.
Quick questions
Are board minutes public?
A UK company's are not, and its members have no right to inspect them. A public authority's usually are: the ICO expects senior-level minutes in its publication scheme.
Can I get draft minutes through a freedom of information request?
You can ask, but an authority that already planned to publish the approved minutes may withhold the draft under section 22 until then. In Scotland the equivalent exemption covers publication within 12 weeks.
Can shareholders see board minutes in the US?
In Delaware, a stockholder can demand them under oath for a proper purpose, and the corporation may redact unrelated parts. New York's statute gives shareholders the minutes of shareholders' meetings.
Can I see what my employer's meeting minutes say about me?
In the UK, usually yes, by a subject access request, answered within one month. Details about other people may be redacted.
Can EdCitation get or write minutes for me?
No. EdCitation writes no minutes and makes no requests; its free Check your paper lists what a scheme or policy asks, and Cite a source references the law you rely on.
References
- Acas. (2024, May 21). Step 4: The grievance meeting. https://www.acas.org.uk/grievance-procedure-step-by-step/step-4-the-grievance-meeting
- Charity Commission. (2024, July 19). Charity meetings (CC48). GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charities-and-meetings-cc48/charities-and-meetings
- Companies Act 2006, c. 46, ss. 248, 355, 358. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/46/section/358
- Companies (Model Articles) Regulations 2008, SI 2008/3229, Sch. 1, art. 50. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/3229/schedule/1
- Del. Code Ann. tit. 8, § 220 (2025). https://delcode.delaware.gov/title8/c001/sc07/index.html
- Freedom of Information Act 2000, c. 36, ss. 1, 8, 10, 19, 21, 22. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/section/22
- Information Commissioner's Office. (n.d.). What is the FOI Act and are we covered? Retrieved September 27, 2026, from https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/foi/what-is-the-foi-act-and-are-we-covered/
- Information Commissioner's Office. (2014). What should be published? Minutes and agendas (Version 2.1). https://ico.org.uk/media2/uhwfkejn/minutesandagendas.pdf
- Information Commissioner's Office. (2015). Decision notice FS50569110: Kirby Muxloe Parish Council. https://cy.ico.org.uk/media2/migrated/decision-notices/1431990/fs_50569110.pdf
- Information Commissioner's Office. (2024). Information intended for future publication and research information (sections 22 and 22A) (Version 1.2). https://ico.org.uk/media2/xnkbxjwg/s22-and-22a-info-intended-for-future-publication-v-1-2.pdf
- Information Commissioner's Office. (2025a, December 8). How can we supply information to the requester? https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/right-of-access/how-can-we-supply-information-to-the-requester/
- Information Commissioner's Office. (2025b, December 8). What should we consider when responding to a request? https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/right-of-access/what-should-we-consider-when-responding-to-a-request/
- Information Commissioner's Office. (2026, April 7). How do we recognise a subject access request (SAR)? https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/individual-rights/right-of-access/how-do-we-recognise-a-subject-access-request-sar/
- Local Government Act 1972, c. 70, ss. 100C, 228. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/70/section/228
- N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law § 624 (2014). https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/BSC/624
- Scottish Information Commissioner. (n.d.-a). How do I ask for information? Retrieved September 27, 2026, from https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask
- Scottish Information Commissioner. (n.d.-b). How long will I have to wait? Retrieved September 27, 2026, from https://www.foi.scot/how-long-will-i-wait
- Scottish Information Commissioner. (2023). Section 27: Information intended for future publication [Exemption briefing]. https://www.foi.scot/sites/default/files/2023-05/BriefingSection27InformationIntendedforFuturePublication_25.5.23.pdf
- Wetherby Town Council. (2017). Publication scheme. https://wetherbytowncouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/WTC-Publication-Scheme.pdf