2024 25 007 Access decision letter 20250224.pdf

‘Nosey Rosey’
via email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx

Dear ‘Nosey’
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST: No. 2024/25-007
ACCESS DECISION

I refer to your request made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the
National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on 14 December 2024, and which you
revised on 19 January 2025, seeking access to:

Timeframe: I am limiting the request to documents from the past 5 years (14 December
2019–14 December 2024).

Document Categories: I request access to the following specific types of documents:

MOUs, contracts, or service-level agreements between NHMRC and DVA
governing the provision of personal information about DVA clients.

NHMRC policies or guidelines on managing DVA client information provided from
DVA.

Privacy Impact Assessments conducted by NHMRC related to personal
information about DVA clients.

I am an officer authorised under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act to make decisions in relation to
FOI requests.

I have decided to refuse access to your request under subsection 24A(1) of the FOI Act, on the
basis that these documents do not exist within NHMRC. The explanation of this decision is set
out below.

Timeframe for processing your request
The FOI request was received by NHMRC via email on 14 December 2024. The statutory
timeframe for processing a request is 30 days, starting from the day after the day on which your
request was received.

This timeframe stopped when NHMRC’s request consultation letter was sent to you on
10 January 2025, under section 24AB of the FOI Act. It restarted when you revised your request
on 19 January 2025, which added 10 days to the timeframe. NHMRC also sought an extension of
30 days from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) under section 15AB
of the FOI Act. OAIC agreed to this extension on 29 January 2025. Accordingly, the due date for
a decision on your request is 24 February 2025.

Decision
In making my decision, I have had regard to the following:
•  the terms of your request
•  the content of the documents to which you have sought access
•  advice from NHMRC officers with responsibility for the matters relating to the documents
to which you sought access

16 MARCUS CLARKE STREET, CANBERRA ACT 2601
GPO BOX 1421, CANBERRA ACT 2601
xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx
NHMRC.GOV.AU

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•  the relevant provisions of the FOI Act (accessed via: www.legislation.gov.au)
•  the FOI Guidelines—Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under
s 93A of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Guidelines) (accessed via:
www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/freedom-of-information-guidance-for-
government-agencies/foi-guidelines).

NHMRC conducted searches of its electronic files and email mailboxes, in line with the scope of
your request. As advised in the FOI Unit’s email to you on 17 January 2025, NHMRC interpreted
the definition of ‘DVA clients’ to be: ‘personal, medical, financial, or service-related details
concerning veterans or their dependents’. This definition was based on your original FOI request
of 14 December 2024.

The key search terms used were:
•  “Department of Veterans' Affairs” (with and without the apostrophe for “Veterans’”)
•  “DVA”
•  “Veterans”
•  “MoU” and “MoUs”
•  “memorandum of understanding” and “memorandum of understandings”
•  “contract” and “contracts”
•  “service-level agreement” (with and without the hyphen for “service-level”), “agreement”
and “agreements”
•  “policy” and “policies”
•  “guideline” and “guidelines”.

These searchers were limited to the 5-year date range speciﬁed in the request (i.e., 14 December
2019–14 December 2024). NHMRC also searched its Privacy Impact Assessments records.

NHMRC’s searches did not identify any documents relevant to the scope of your request.
Accordingly, I have decided to refuse access to your request under subsection 24A(1) of the FOI
Act, on the basis that these documents do not exist within NHMRC. Subsection 24A(1) of the FOI
Act states that a request for access to a document may be refused if all reasonable steps have
been made to ﬁnd the documents and the agency is satisﬁed that the documents, inter alia, do
not exist.

About NHMRC
As advised in NHMRC’s request consultation letter of 10 January 2025, NHMRC provides funding
to support high quality health and medical research though its grant funding program; it does
not itself conduct research. NHMRC grant funding is awarded through Administering Institutions1
(AIs), which include universities, hospitals and medical research institutes that meet defined
research governance requirements. The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) is not an NHMRC
AI. Given its role, NHMRC does not seek to collect, store, or share personal information, health or
medical records about participants in the research that it funds. NHMRC does not have a
data-sharing memorandum of understanding or service-level agreement in place with the DVA.
Further information about NHMRC is available on our website2 .

Charges
I have decided not to impose charges for processing this FOI request.

Your review rights
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or Information
Commissioner review of the decision.

1 URL: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/funding/manage-your-funding/nhmrc-funding/administering-institutions
2 URL: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/
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Internal review
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to NHMRC for an internal review of
my decision. The internal review application must be made within 30 days of the date of this
letter. Where possible, please attach reasons why you believe review of the decision is
necessary. The internal review will be carried out by another officer within 30 days. Please email
a request for internal review to NHMRC’s FOI Unit at xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.

Information Commissioner review
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the Australian Information Commissioner to
review my decision. Such an application must be made in writing within 60 days of the date of
this letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
•  online:
https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=ICReview&layoutcode=ICReviewWF
•  email: xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
•  post: GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW, 2001.

More information about Information Commissioner review is available on the Office of the
Australian Information Commissioner3 website.

Complaints
If you are unhappy with the way your FOI request has been handled, you can make a complaint
in writing to NHMRC at: complaintx@xxxxx.xxx.xx. Information on how NHMRC manages
complaints can be found on the NHMRC4 website.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can make a complaint in writing to the Australian
Information Commissioner in one of the following ways:
•  online:
https://webform.oaic.gov.au/prod?entitytype=Complaint&layoutcode=FOIComplaintWF
•  email: xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
•  post: GPO Box 5288 Sydney 2001

More information about FOI complaints is available on the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner5 website.

Questions
If you have any queries or wish to discuss my decision, please contact the NHMRC FOI Unit at
xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xx.

Yours sincerely

Prue Torrance
General Manager

24 February 2025

3 URL: https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-of-
information-reviews/information-commissioner-review
4 URL: https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/resources/nhmrc-complaints-policy
5 URL: https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/your-freedom-of-information-rights/freedom-of-
information-complaints
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