Administrative/Informal access Arrangements
Ben Fairless made this Freedom of Information request to Australian Federal Police as part of a batch sent to 7 authorities
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Australian Federal Police,
Can you let me know if you have any guidelines which detail what non-personal information can be provided without a formal FOI request (This is sometimes referred to as "Administrative Access Arrangements")?
Please consider this request informally if possible, otherwise consider it a formal FOI request if possible.
Yours faithfully,
Ben Fairless
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UNCLASSIFIED
Good Morning Mr Fairless,
Your Freedom of Information Request
I refer to your application emailed 28 March in which you seek access to
documents under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act) as follows:
Can you let me know if you have any guidelines which detail what
non-personal information can be provided without a formal FOI request
(This is sometimes referred to as "Administrative Access Arrangements")?
Information considered irrelevant to the scope of your request
The AFP, in its management of FOI requests, excludes the following
information on the basis that is irrelevant to the scope of a request:
- Names of AFP members, other than the Senior Executive.
- Direct telephone numbers, signatures and mobile telephone numbers
of AFP members.
- Duplicate documents, including duplicate emails. The AFP will only
provide emails where they form a final email chain and the
authors/recipients are contained within the final email.
- Information that is publicly available, for example, newspaper
articles, online publications including information available on the AFP
Information Publication Scheme and the AFP disclosure log.
If you object to the AFP excluding any of the above information, please
advise this office within seven days of receipt of this letter.
Your request was received by this agency on 28 March 2017 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from that date.
You will be notified of any charges in accordance with the Freedom of
Information (Fees and Charges) Regulations, should they apply, in relation
to your request as soon as practicable.
Disclosure Log
Please be advised that in accordance with section 11C of the Act, an
agency is required to publish information on their website following the
notification of a decision in respect of a freedom of information
request.
The requirement to publish information released under FOI reinforces the
objectives of the FOI Act to promote a pro-disclosure culture across
government and to increase recognition that information held by government
is a national resource. Exceptions to the requirement to publish
information would apply to personal information and information concerning
the business affairs of a person if it was considered ‘unreasonable’ to do
so. Details of the decision may be published in a Disclosure Log which
can be found at
[1]https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/informat....
Publication will be made in accordance with timeframes stipulated in
section 11C of the Act.
If, however, after noting the above, you wish to raise any concerns about
the publication of information concerning your request prior to the
notification of a decision, please advise this office in writing before 27
April 2017. If you do not raise any concerns prior to the date of the
decision, the AFP will publish the information as notified to you in the
decision.
Yours sincerely
JESS (AFP 22486)
TEAM MEMBER - FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
CHIEF COUNSEL PORTFOLIO
Tel +61(0) 2 6131 6131
[2]www.afp.gov.au
UNCLASSIFIED
References
Visible links
1. https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/informat...
2. http://www.afp.gov.au/
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Fairless
Please find attached a decision in relation to your FOI request.
Regards,
JACQUELINE (AFP12306)
TEAM LEADER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
CHIEF COUNSEL PORTFOLIO
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Ellery, Jacqueline,
Thanks for the decision. Could you send the document?
Yours sincerely,
Ben Fairless
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Fairless
The letter should have read that the entire document was exempt in full, not some of the document exempt in full.
Regards,
JACQUELINE ELLERY
TEAM LEADER, FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
CHIEF COUNSEL PORTFOLIO
AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE
Tel +61(0) 2 6131 6131
www.afp.gov.au
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
Applying a full s 47C - Deliberative Matter exemption on a document relating to a policy on administrative access to AFP documents only makes sense if that policy is still in draft. The delegate states that exemption is valid because it is an "operational document" which appears to me to fundamentally misunderstand the exemption ground claimed.
Section 6.57 of the Information Commissioner's FOI Guidelines to agencies clearly states "Deliberative matter does not include operational information or purely factual material (s 47C(2))". Deliberative matter is best understood as preliminary matter yet to be decided/formalised, which is why this specific exemption exists (because it may be unreasonable to disclose yet to be settled preliminary thinking).
For the sort of material in question. the delegate really should have been looking to s 47E(d) based on the reasoning given, although I'm unclear that - given the document in question and what it is about - that such an exemption claim could be reasonably be held. Some irony that a document about AFP's administrative disclosure policy is sought to be exempt by the AFP :)
Locutus Sum left an annotation ()
I do not understand the response to this request. What have I overlooked?
The officer says, or much implies, that he has released some of the information that is requested by the applicant. Yet, I can see none of the information, only the decision letter.