No responsive records, and asking a question about a request

Last updated: August 21, 2026

Two of the most useful things a contributor can do are say "I do not have any" and "I am not sure what you want". Both are proper answers and both are better said early.

How to reply on a request

  1. Open the request you were asked about.
  2. Go to the Internal Notes tab.
  3. Write your note, and type @ to mention the records officer so they are notified.
  4. Click Add Note.

Internal notes are staff-only. They are never emailed and never shown to the requester, so this is the right place for anything about the search rather than about the records.

If the Internal Notes tab is not available to you, your role does not have edit access to Requests. Tell the records officer.

Saying you have no responsive records

This is a finding, not an absence of one, and it needs to be recorded rather than left as silence.

Say three things:

  • What you searched. The systems, folders or mailboxes you looked in.
  • What period you covered.
  • That you found nothing matching.

"I checked the shared drive and my mail from 2023 to 2025 and there is nothing about that contract" is evidence. "Nothing here" is not.

That difference matters because the adequacy of your agency's search can be questioned later. A note describing a real search is what supports the answer your agency gives the requester.

Asking a question

Ask before you gather, not after. Most requests that go wrong for a contributor go wrong because the scope was assumed rather than checked.

Worth asking about:

  • The date range, if you were not given one.
  • Which of several things a term refers to, where your department uses it differently from the public.
  • Whether drafts count, or only final versions.
  • Whether you should include records you expect to be withheld. The answer is almost always yes.

Do not answer the requester

If a request needs something from the person who filed it, the records officer handles that. Contributors work in internal notes.

A reply written in the correspondence thread goes to the requester, and once sent it is part of the permanent record of the request.