Dear Mr Thompson,

The Department of Veterans' Affairs (the department) has received your
request for access to information under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (FOI Act). I note you have requested access to the following:

''Under FOI I request a detailed and factual breakdown of the expenditure
of 28.9 million dollars provided to the DVA last year by government to
"Respond to information access requests from the Royal Commission and
Commissioner into Defence and Veteran Suicide". This should include all
monies provided to external contracted entities including but not limited
to, "Sparke Helmore". Further to this request can the DVA provide up to
date figures of how many FOI requests have been received, what percentage
of these requests have been approved and the requested information
provided to the applicants, what are the time frames (TTP) that these
requests are processed and finalised.''

Your request was received by the department on 5 February 2023 and the
ordinary 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced
from the day after that date.

Administrative access

The department considers that your request is more appropriately processed
under administrative access arrangements. Where requests are made under
the FOI Act, the department is required to consider whether any exemptions
apply to the material, preventing its release. The department must also
prepare a formal statement of reasons for the decision.

As your request relates to your own personal information, and with your
agreement, the above requirements will not apply. If you agree to the
administrative access arrangements, please reply to this email by 15
February 2023 Acknowledging your agreement for the department to process
your request administratively and withdrawing your request under the FOI
Act. The department endeavours to make decisions on administrative access
requests within 30 days.

Charges

The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your
request and the amount of any such charge as soon as practicable. No
charge is payable for providing a person with their own personal
information.

Your address

The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address that we can send
notices to. You have advised your electronic address is
[1][FOI #9900 email] . Unless you tell us
otherwise, we will send all notices and correspondence to this address.

Disclosure log

Information released under the FOI Act may be published on a disclosure
log on our website, subject to certain exceptions. These exceptions
include where publication of personal, business, professional or
commercial information would be unreasonable.

Request to treat certain material as out of scope or irrelevant to the
request

To the extent the department has documents in its possession that fall
within the scope of your request, we intend to treat the following
information as out of scope or irrelevant to your request, pursuant to
section 22(1)(b)(ii) of the FOI Act:

1.      The surnames, signatures and direct contact details of non-SES
Commonwealth employees and contractors, including clinical staff working
for Open Arms - Veterans & Families Counselling;

2.      The surnames, signatures and direct contact details of serving
members of the Australian Defence Force; and

3.      The signatures of third party individuals.

If you agree to the department treating these details as irrelevant,
please advise by 15 February 2023.

Further assistance

If you have any questions about your request, please email
[2][DVA request email]

Yours sincerely

Arthur  Position Number – 62341836

Information Access Registrations Officer

Information Access Unit / Client Access and Rehabilitation Branch

Client Engagement and Support Services Division

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372)

[3][DVA request email]

[4]www.dva.gov.au

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References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #9900 email]
2. mailto:[DVA request email]
3. mailto:[DVA request email]
4. http://www.dva.gov.au/
5. https://www.facebook.com/DVAAus
6. https://twitter.com/DVAAus
7. https://au.linkedin.com/company/australi...
8. https://www.youtube.com/DVATVAus

Dear Mr Thompson,

Thank you for your recent Information Access Request.

Please refer to the attached documentation and contact me via email
([email address]) if I can be of further assistance.

Kind regards

Natalie | Senior Information Access Officer 

Position Number 62211022

Information Access Unit  I Client Access and RehabilitationBranch

Client Engage and Support Services Division

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

Tel. 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372)

[1][email address]

[2]www.dva.gov.au 

[3]cid:image002.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[4]cid:image003.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[5]cid:image004.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[6]cid:image005.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.dva.gov.au/
3. https://www.facebook.com/DVAAus
4. https://twitter.com/DVAAus
5. https://au.linkedin.com/company/australi...
6. https://www.youtube.com/DVATVAus