Virginia runs its access law through a standing body, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council, which publishes the guidance both requesters and officials use, issues searchable advisory opinions, and trains the FOIA officers every public body must appoint, who under section 2.2-3704.2(E) must be trained at least once in every two calendar years by the body's legal counsel or by the council. The council's guide to access describes the Act as largely procedural, with sections 2.2-3704 and 2.2-3704.01 telling everyone how to make and answer a request. A public record is any writing or recording, in any format, prepared or owned by, or in the possession of, a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business, which covers handwritten notes, typed documents, electronic files including email and social media posts, audio and video recordings and photographs. Drafts count, because the definition does not distinguish between preliminary and final versions.
Who may ask is narrower here than in most states. The right belongs to citizens of the Commonwealth, to representatives of newspapers and magazines with circulation in Virginia, and to representatives of radio and television stations broadcasting in or into Virginia, with certain other parties able to reach criminal investigative files once the matter is no longer ongoing. Against that, the mechanics are generous. A request need not mention the Act to trigger it, need not be in writing at all, cannot be forced onto the body's own form, and cannot be forced through an online portal or software, although a body may develop both and may ask. A request does not have to go to the FOIA officer, though the council recommends it because those officers are trained. One thing a body may insist on is identification: it may require a requester to give a name and legal address before processing a request. For Virginia records held locally, see the Virginia county pages.
- Five working days: the response period, counting the day after receipt as day one, and failing to respond is deemed a denial and a violation.
- Five allowed answers: the records, a full refusal, a partial refusal, a statement that nothing was found, or a request for seven more working days.
- Citations required: a refusal must be written, describe the withheld subject matter with reasonable particularity and cite the Code section for each category.
- Money pauses the clock: a cost estimate or a deposit tolls the five working days, and a deposit can be required where charges are likely to exceed $200.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Virginia's own systems: the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, the council's access to public records guide for 2026, the council's reference materials page, the council's FOIA training page, the council's training course approval instructions, each read on October 14, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The five answers a public body may give
Virginia does not leave an agency room to improvise. Within five working days of receipt, counting the day after receipt as day one, a public body must make one of five responses: provide the records; withhold them entirely because release is prohibited by law or because the custodian has exercised a discretion the Act allows; provide part and withhold part on the same grounds; state that the records could not be found or do not exist, including contact information for another public body where the one asked knows that body holds them; or state that it is not practically possible to provide the records, or to work out whether they exist, within five working days, and that it needs seven additional working days, or sixty working days where the request is for criminal investigative files under section 2.2-3706.1.
The council is blunt about silence: failure to respond to a request is deemed a denial and constitutes a violation of the Act.
What a refusal has to say
Where any part of the answer is no, the response must be in writing, must identify with reasonable particularity the subject matter of the withheld records, and must cite, for each category withheld, the specific section of the Code of Virginia that authorises withholding, although the council notes that a body may sometimes rely on another law entirely, such as a court order or a federal statute, because the Act requires records to be provided except as otherwise specifically provided by law.
Where everything is withheld, the response must also identify the volume of what is being withheld with reasonable particularity, which may be a page count, the size of a digital file, the duration of a recording or another measure suited to the record. Where the answer is that the records cannot be found or do not exist, that too must be in writing, with contact details for any other public body known to hold them. And where the body wants the extra seven working days, the notice must be in writing and must specify the conditions that make production within five working days impossible.
A body that writes none of this has not complied, whatever it has told the requester by telephone.
Redaction, and the limits of what can be demanded
Where a record contains both exempt and non exempt information, the general rule is that the body must release the record and delete or excise only the exempt portion, withholding a whole record only where the whole record is exempt or prohibited from disclosure. A public body is generally not required to create a new record where the one requested does not exist, though it may abstract or summarise information on terms agreed with the requester.
For electronic records the same principles apply with two useful refinements: excising exempt fields from a database, or converting data from one available format to another, is not treated as creating a new record, and a body must provide electronic records in any medium the requester identifies where that medium is used in the regular course of business, which includes posting records to a website or sending them to an email address where the body can do that.
A body is not required to produce records in a format it does not regularly use, but must make reasonable efforts to do so on agreed terms, including payment of reasonable costs.
What a request costs, and how money stops the clock
A public body may make reasonable charges for its actual cost in accessing, duplicating, supplying or searching for records, and must make all reasonable efforts to supply them at the lowest possible cost. It may not charge extraneous or surplus fees unrelated to production, cannot factor in overheads or the cost of employee benefits, and cannot charge more than the actual cost of duplication for copies. Since July 1, 2022 it also cannot charge at all for scholastic records that must be made available under the federal education privacy law where the request comes from a parent or guardian of a minor student or from a student aged eighteen or over.
Two money rules affect timing. If a requester asks for an estimate of the cost in advance, the body must provide one, and the five working day period is tolled for the time between the estimate being sent and the requester replying, with the request deemed withdrawn if no reply arrives within 30 days. And where a body determines in advance that charges are likely to exceed $200, it may require a deposit, which cannot exceed the advance determination and must be credited against the final cost, with the five working day period tolled until the deposit is paid.
A body may also require payment of amounts left unpaid for 30 days or more from earlier requests before it responds to a new one.
The exemptions worth knowing first
The Act contains more than 150 exemptions, most tied to particular bodies or record types, with a smaller set of general applicability available to almost any public body. Two of those come up constantly. The personnel exemption at section 2.2-3705.1(1) covers personnel information concerning identifiable individuals, although access cannot be denied to the person the information is about, and an adult subject may waive the protection in writing.
The same provision protects public access to contracts between a body and its officers or employees other than settlements of employment disputes, to records of the name, position, job classification, official salary or rate of pay and of allowances and expense reimbursements of any officer, official or employee, except where the annual pay is $10,000 or less. The council records the narrowing effect of Hawkins v. Town of South Hill, in which the Supreme Court of Virginia held that personnel information means data, facts or statements in a public record relating to a specific government employee, in the entity's possession solely because of the employment relationship, and private, with privacy judged by whether disclosure would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy to a reasonable person.
The second general exemption, at section 2.2-3705.1(2), covers written advice of legal counsel to public bodies and anything else protected by attorney client privilege.
Where to get help, and the training behind the system
The council treats training as its most important function and provides it free, including accredited courses carrying credit for attorneys and law enforcement that anyone may attend, with other bodies such as municipal clerks and school boards granting their own credit for attendance. Trainers outside the council must have courses and materials approved in advance, with no retroactive approval, and instructors must either be attorneys licensed by the Virginia State Bar or subject matter experts such as a FOIA officer or municipal clerk with two or more years of experience; approved trainers must keep attendance records for two years, submit attendee lists and issue certificates.
The council also publishes an annual set of reference materials, including separate guides to access to public records, access to public meetings, best practices for making requests, electronic meetings, email use and retention, and law enforcement records, together with a charges guide and a searchable archive of advisory opinions, which is the quickest way to see how a particular exemption has been read.
Reading a Virginia response
The test of a Virginia answer is whether it fits one of the five permitted responses and carries what that response requires. A refusal without a Code citation per category is incomplete. A claim that records cannot be found, given orally, is incomplete. An extension that does not explain the conditions making five working days impossible is incomplete. And silence is a denial on its face. On cost, a bill that includes overhead or staff benefits is outside the rule, as is a copying charge above actual duplication cost, and a requester who asks for an estimate should remember that the clock stops until they reply, and restarts only then, with the request lapsing after 30 days of their silence.
Questions about public records requests in Virginia
Related Virginia records
Virginia's other public records guides on this site are the Virginia background check guide for the State Police criminal history service, the Virginia court records guide for the circuit court clerks, the Virginia arrest records guide for what a booking makes public, and the Virginia county pages for every county office.