Alien enthusiasts may finally get some answers on whether life exists outside of Earth — and its all thanks to the UK's Freedom of Information Act.

Confidential files from the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) on UFOs dating back to the 1960s are set to be made public soon due to the volume of requests for information on aliens from the public under the country's FOI Act 2000, which came into force three years ago.

Popular demand for the "X-Files" to be in the public domain means that information on hundreds of documented sightings will be released to the National Archives at Kew, including photographs and drawings from people who have spotted UFOs.

And it's not just the Brits who are prepared to put "the truth" about aliens out there. The French and Irish governments have also recently released dossiers on sightings, the latter under its own FOI Act.

The decisions to disclose information are down to ordinary members of the public — albeit ones with a keen interest in the mysteries of the universe — asking questions and having the right in law to answers.

College lecturer David Clarke and his colleague Andy Roberts, from Sheffield, England, have made numerous requests for information from the MoD in the UK, particularly regarding a secret unit known as DI55 which conspiracy theorists reckoned was a Men in Black-style agency protecting Earth from invasion.

Their efforts have seen the release of files under FOI showing that the reality is rather less exciting. But the documents do reveal the lengths to which the MoD went to try to prevent the public from knowing about the unit's activities.

The files show that civil servants attempted to expunge information from documents released to the Public Records Office under a "30-year rule" that would have revealed the extent of the MoD's interest in UFO sightings.

One 1995 memo from DI55 to the MoD's public "UFO desk" said: "I have several books at home that describe our supposed role of 'defender of the Earth against the alien menace' — it is light years from the truth!"

Another internal note says a request for information in 1976 should be rebutted on confidentiality grounds. The note says DI55 sometimes makes "extensive inquiries" on UFOs, adding: "It is undesirable that even a hint of this should become public and we are currently consulting the [Air Historical Branch] on ways of expurgating the official records against the time when they qualify for disclosure."

Dr. Clarke told the UK's Guardian newspaper: "These documents don't tell us anything about UFOs but they do show how desperate the MoD have been to conceal the interest which the intelligence services had in the subject."