LEX 51948 Notice of Internal Review Decision.pdf

Bob Buckley
By email only: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear Bob

Freedom of Information Internal Review LEX 51948

I refer to your application under Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) made to the Department
of Social Services (the Department) on 18 October 2024. The application seeks internal review of the
decision made in respect of the FOI request LEX 51699 (original decision) which sought access to:

“…all documents held, sent or received by SES officers since 1 January 2020 (including
attachments) that contains information that relates to the implementation and delivery of the
Carer Allowance program…”

I am authorised to make internal review decisions under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act and am
writing to inform you of that decision.

The original decision

The original decision refused access to the documents sought in ful on the basis that processing the
request would unreasonably and substantial y divert the resources of the Department from its other
operations and therefore that a practical refusal reason exists in respect of the request.

A copy of the original decision is enclosed.

Internal review decision

I have decided to affirm the original decision that a practical refusal reason exists in accordance with
section 24 of the FOI Act.

The request for internal review submitted that there was insufficient evidence to find that the request
was too voluminous to process, and therefore that a claim of a practical refusal reason could not be
substantiated. The application did not acknowledge prior advice from the Department that it had
undertaken preliminary enquiries as to the amount of documents within scope, and that the refusal
decision was being made on the basis of that advice.

As iterated throughout the primary decision process, the request is framed broadly and captures a
significant amount of documents within its scope. A breakdown of the searches conducted for
documents is below for your reference.

The Department has conducted IT searches of email inboxes of current Senior Executive Service (SES)
staff with functional responsibility for the Carer allowance program, specifically for emails that include
the terms ‘Carer Allowance’ and ‘Carer Allowance Program‘. This approach was required because
every email that has passing relevance to the Carers Allowance program would naturally relate to its
implementation and delivery, as per the terms of the request. This issue was identified to you during
the course of the request and you opted not to refine it.

This search has identified 26,500 emails meeting the search terms authored from January 2020 to
May 2024. The IT team also conducted searches of the Department’s Enterprise Vault ‘EV’ which
identified a further 1,904 emails meeting the searches terms for the same date range. Accordingly,
28,404 documents in total were identified during this preliminary search.

I have made the fol owing assumptions:

-  half of the documents identified contain duplicates (such is the nature of email chains);
-  the documents are on average 3 pages each in length; and
-  it would take 3 minutes per page to review and consider whether exemptions may apply to
them.

On the basis of the above, it would take a total of 2,130.3 hours (14,202 documents x 3 pages x 3
minutes / 60 minutes), or just over 284 working days to review the documents subject to your request.

Furthermore, it is likely the emails within scope wil  have attachments, increasing the total amount of
documents, and the Department wil  need undertake the significant administrative processes
associated with a request of this size.

I consider that processing this request would be an unreasonable and substantial diversion of
resources in particular those for the FOI team and subject matter specialists dealing with the Carers
Allowance program. I therefore am satisfied, and that a practical refusal reason exists in respect of the
request and affirm the primary decision to refuse it.

Material relied upon in making this decision

I relied on the following material in coming to this decision:
•  the terms of the FOI request;
•  the application for internal review;
•  the documents subject to the FOI request;
•  advice from subject matter experts within the Department regarding the amount of subject to the
request;
•  the FOI Act; and
•  the Guidelines issued by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A
of the FOI Act (FOI Guidelines).

Review rights and complaints

Information concerning how you may seek a review of this decision or make a complaint about the
handling of this request is at Attachment B.

Contact
If you would like to discuss any aspect of my decision, please contact me at xxx@xxx.xxx.xx.

Yours sincerely

Alan Hilvert-Bruce
Authorised FOI Decision Maker
18 November 2024

Attachments
Attachment A – Review Rights

ATTACHMENT A

REVIEW RIGHTS

Information Commissioner review

You can apply for the Information Commissioner to review this decision either immediately or
following an internal review decision. You must apply to the Information Commissioner within 60 days
of the receipt of this decision letter.

Further details on this process can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/.

Complaints to the Information Commissioner

You may also make a complaint to the Information Commissioner concerning actions taken by the
Department while exercising its powers or performing its functions under the FOI Act.

Further details on this process can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/.