Correspondence procedures
Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,
I write to request under the Freedom of Information Act any procedure or policy documents used which describe the process by which correspondence to the Prime Minister is handled.
Yours faithfully,
Jeremy Cooper-Stout
Dear Mr Cooper-Stout
I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982,
received by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, seeking
access to ‘any procedure or policy documents used which describe the
process by which correspondence to the Prime Minister is handled.’
We seek your agreement under s 15AA of the FOI Act to a 30-day extension
of time to deal with your FOI request. The current due date for notifying
you an access decision is Sunday 8 December 2013 (extended to the next
business day, Monday 9 December 2013). The proposed extension of time
would mean that the due date for notifying you an access decision would be
Tuesday 7 January 2014. The reason we seek your agreement to an extension
of time is due to the absence of a key staff member working on the request
and other urgent competing work priorities.
While we seek your agreement to a 30-day extension, this is precautionary,
and at this stage we do not anticipate requiring the full additional 30
days to respond to your FOI request. We will work to respond to your
request as soon as possible.
If possible, we would be grateful for your advice on whether you agree to
the extension of time by Monday, 9 December 2013, if possible. We regret
the short deadline for response.
Yours sincerely
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [1][DPMC request email]
[2]Description: Description: Description: FOI design element
______________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
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return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________
References
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1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
FOI/2013/131
Dear Mr Cooper-Stout
I refer to your email of 7 November 2013, received by the Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet (the Department), in which you made a
request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) in the
following terms:
…any procedure or policy documents used which describe the process by
which correspondence to the Prime Minister is handled.
Timeframe for receiving your decision
We received your request on 7 November 2013 and the 30 day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from the day after that
date. The due date for decision was 8 November 2013. We refer to our
email of 5 December 2013 in which we sought your agreement to an extension
of time and await your response. In the meantime, we have sought an
extension of time from the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner.
Charges
Agencies may decide that an applicant is liable to pay a charge in respect
of a request for access to documents. If the Department decides that you
are liable to pay a charge, we will send you a preliminary assessment of
the charge as soon as possible.
Publication of documents
Please note that information released under the FOI Act may later be
published online on our disclosure log at
[1]http://www.dpmc.gov.au/foi/ips/disclosur..., subject to
certain exceptions. If you think you might wish to raise any objections to
the publication of any of the information which may be released to you
please contact us by email at [2][DPMC request email]. If you do wish to object
to the publication of information, you would need to provide supporting
reasons.
Exclusion of officers’ names and contact details
It is the Department’s policy to withhold the names and contact details of
officers not in the Senior Executive Service (SES) within the Department
and other agencies contained within documents that fall within scope of
the request. The names and details of departmental and agency SES officers
will not be withheld unless there is some reason for that information to
be exempt from release. If you require the names and contact details of
non-SES officers please let us know at [3][DPMC request email] so the
decision-maker may consider; otherwise we will take it that you agree to
that information being excluded from the scope of your request.
We will write again when the Department has more information. Further
information on FOI processing can be found at the website of the Office of
the Australian Information Commissioner at
[4]http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_....
Yours sincerely
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [5][DPMC request email]
[6]Description: Description: Description: FOI design element
______________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________
References
Visible links
1. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/foi/ips/disclosur...
2. mailto:[DPMC request email]
3. mailto:[DPMC request email]
4. http://www.oaic.gov.au/foi-portal/about_...
5. mailto:[DPMC request email]
Dear Mr Cooper-Stout
I refer to your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982,
received by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, seeking
access to ‘any procedure or policy documents used which describe the
process by which correspondence to the Prime Minister is handled.’
We are writing to inform you that the Department has identified
information concerning a third party in a document relevant to your
request. The Department has formed the view that it is appropriate to
consult that third party in respect of the possible disclosure of their
information.
Under s 15(6) of the FOI Act, the statutory period for processing an FOI
request is extended by 30 days in these situations. We advise that the
timeframe for processing this request has been extended by 30 days in
accordance with this provision and the date by which we must give you a
decision is now 60 days from the date on which your request was received
by the Department.
Yours sincerely
FOI Adviser
Legal Policy Branch
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Phone: 02 6271 5849
Email: [1][DPMC request email]
[2]Description: Description: Description: FOI design element
Please note that the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet will
cease normal business for the Christmas-New Year period from Wednesday 25
December 2013 to Wednesday 1 January 2014 inclusively, and will resume
normal business on Thursday 2 January 2014.
______________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
UNCLASSIFIED
Dear Mr Cooper-Stout
Please see attached correspondence from the Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet in relation to your FOI request (reference:
FOI/2013/131).
We regret the delay in this matter.
Yours sincerely
FOI Adviser
Access and Administrative Review Section | Legal Policy Branch
Government Division | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
p. 02 6271 5849 |e. [1][email address]
[2]www.dpmc.gov.au | [3]www.indigenous.gov.au
PO Box 6500 CANBERRA ACT 2600
The Department acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to their elders both past
and present.
[4]Description: Description: Description:
cid:image001.png@01CEF5A2.F4275AD0
______________________________________________________________________
IMPORTANT: This message, and any attachments to it, contains information
that is confidential and may also be the subject of legal professional or
other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient of this message,
you
must not review, copy, disseminate or disclose its contents to any other
party or take action in reliance of any material contained within it. If
you
have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately
by
return email informing them of the mistake and delete all copies of the
message from your computer system.
______________________________________________________________________
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. http://www.dpmc.gov.au/
3. http://www.indigenous.gov.au/