The Advertising Standards Authority, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) or the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) are not designated “public authorities” for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Nevertheless we have made a commitment to being a transparent organisation and will voluntarily:
 
  • Publish some of the information a public authority would be obliged to make public.
  • Consider requests for the disclosure of unpublished information including under other applicable information rights legislation.

Information about the ASA and CAP

We voluntarily publish the following information on our website about who we are and our policies:
 


If you would like to submit a request for unpublished information, please complete the form below or write to us using the address at the bottom of this page. We provide most unpublished information free of charge, however where a request requires specialist skills to interrogate our databases, we charge according to length of time the work will take us. 

Enquiries made on behalf of an organisation should provide a named contact. Providing a phone number may help us answer your question more quickly, particularly if it is unclear to us. Replies will be sent by email or (if specified) by conventional post.

Data request form

A summary of complaints received by the ASA is available in our Annual Report, with details of each ruling being published on this website every Wednesday.

If you require additional information please complete the following form, to help us identify and extract the information you require as quickly as possible, thereby keeping charges to a minimum.  We will advise you how long we think it will take to produce the information, and any associated charges, and you can then decide if you wish to proceed.  

We charge £25 (plus VAT) for the first hour of data processing, but each hour thereafter is £50 (plus VAT).

We can only provide complaint data going back six years from today’s date.

Step 1 - About you

Please provide as much personal information as you are willing to enable us to contact you easily if we need to clarify your request.  Your personal data will not be used for any other purpose by the ASA or CAP, nor will it be passed on to any other organisation.

Step 2 - About your request

Please tell us specifically what data you are interested in.  You can include as many criteria as you wish, or none at all (which would give you all complaints dating back to six years ago today).

Step 3 - File format

As standard, our export file will normally be a CSV file containing the columns shown below, along with a glossary of terms to assist your understanding of any reference codes that appear within the file.  

Please inform us if this standard export does not meet your requirements and explain what further information you require.  We are not able to provide any fields that would reveal the identity of the complainant, or any personal data.  

  • Advertiser
  • Product/Brand
  • Product Categories e.g. mobile phones, anti-ageing cream, pet insurance
  • Industry Sector
  • Media Type e.g. newspaper, internet, radio, cinema
  • Media Title
  • Enquirer Type i.e. consumer or industry complaint
  • Issues
  • Sub-Issues
  • Date Received
  • Complexity
  • Resolution
  • Date Adjudication Published