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I would have to stand by my comment in the previous thread and respectfully disagree with the advice of Alex from the FOI Procedural Policy Team. I believe he has asked himself the wrong question. I cannot disagree with the proposition that the means by which a request is received is insignificant. But the real question, for this issue, in s1 (1) is not "what was the means" who was the request made TO ... To interpret it in this way is bizarre. I previously gave the example of a flyposter. How about this: Disgruntled citizen stands on his soapbox at Hyde park corner and bellows through his megaphone "I Fred Bloogs of xxx want to know what the council is doing about all this rubbish" and is overheard by a council worker mending a broken street lamp. This is an environmental information request and does not have to be in writing. By the logic of the response it needs to be dealt with as an EIR request. We would also have to stop reading newspapers - they often have letter columns where questions are raised !