FOI charges letters

You have contacted the Freedom of Information Team at the Commonwealth
Department of Education (the department). If your email relates to a
Freedom of Information (FOI) application made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act), the department will respond as soon
as possible.

This email address is only for applications for access to documents under
the FOI Act. The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related
enquiries sent to this email address, and accordingly, emails sent to this
email address that are not FOI related will not be responded to or
forwarded.

CRICOS Codes

If you are seeking information relating to the Commonwealth Register of
Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), information about
Australian education providers offering courses to people studying in
Australia on student visas and the courses offered, including CRICOS
codes, is available at [1]http://cricos.education.gov.au//. Monthly CRICOS
data exports are available at [2]https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos.
The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related CRICOS enquiries
sent to this email address.

Non-FOI Enquiries

If you have a non-FOI related enquiry for the department, you can contact
the department by using the online enquiry form at
[3]https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co....

Regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. http://cricos.education.gov.au/
2. https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos
3. https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co...

You have contacted the Freedom of Information Team at the Commonwealth
Department of Education (the department). If your email relates to a
Freedom of Information (FOI) application made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act), the department will respond as soon
as possible.

This email address is only for applications for access to documents under
the FOI Act. The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related
enquiries sent to this email address, and accordingly, emails sent to this
email address that are not FOI related will not be responded to or
forwarded.

CRICOS Codes

If you are seeking information relating to the Commonwealth Register of
Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), information about
Australian education providers offering courses to people studying in
Australia on student visas and the courses offered, including CRICOS
codes, is available at [1]http://cricos.education.gov.au//. Monthly CRICOS
data exports are available at [2]https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos.
The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related CRICOS enquiries
sent to this email address.

Non-FOI Enquiries

If you have a non-FOI related enquiry for the department, you can contact
the department by using the online enquiry form at
[3]https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co....

Regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. http://cricos.education.gov.au/
2. https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos
3. https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co...

Dear CR

I refer to your request, received by the Department of Education (department) on 1 October 2024, for access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to the following:

“1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.

For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:

2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant contention.

3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or external review.

Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants.”

Your request was received by the department on 1 October 2024 and the 30 day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after that date. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult third parties or for other reasons permitted under the FOI Act. We will advise you if this happens.

Revised scope of your request
You subsequently contacted the department on 8 October 2024 to revise the scope of your request to seek access to the following:
“1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.

For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:

2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant contention.

3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or external review.

The time period for my request is from 1 July 2022 to 1 October 2024.

Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants, including supporting evidence or details of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention.
ii) Emails that attached the charges notices/decision letters.”

Scope of your request
We note that you have excluded personal information about FOI applicants from the scope of your request. However, the scopes of FOI requests received by the department often include personal information about individuals other than the FOI applicant as well as information about businesses. The department quotes the scope of the relevant FOI request in charge notices and charge decisions. As such, consultation may be required with a number of third parties that are referred to in the notices of charges and decisions on charges captured by the scope of your request in relation to the potential release of personal information and business information.

While the scope of your request is a matter for you, noting the above, you may wish to exclude the scopes of the FOI requests that are contained in the notices of charges and decisions on charges captured by your request.

Please let us know if you would like to further revise the scope of your request and if so, the specific terms of your further revised request by COB Monday 14 October 2024. If we do not hear from you by this time we will proceed on the basis of the current scope of your request (i.e. we will not exclude the scopes of the FOI requests set out in the notices of charges and decisions on charges).

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 [FOI #12111 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.

Exclusion of employee details
To the extent the department has documents in its possession that fall within the scope of your request, we will treat the names, signatures, position titles, staff identification numbers and direct contact details of Commonwealth employees as irrelevant in accordance with section 22 of the FOI Act, unless you tell us otherwise by COB Monday 14 October 2024.

Further assistance
If you have any questions about your request, please email [email address].

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

-----Original Message-----
From: CR <[FOI #12111 email]>
Sent: Tuesday, October 8, 2024 9:33 PM
To: Education - FOI <[Department of Education request email]>
Subject: Re: Freedom of Information request - FOI charges letters

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CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe.
**************************************************************************

Dear FOI Officer,

I am writing to amend the scope of my FOI request to assist with its processing.

As I wish to access only recent charge decisions, I have introduced a time frame and clarified the exclusions. I confirm the revised scope of my request as follows:

1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.

For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:

2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant contention.

3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or external review.

The time period for my request is from 1 July 2022 to 1 October 2024.

Please exclude the following information:

i) Personal information of FOI applicants, including supporting evidence or details of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention.

ii) Emails that attached the charges notices/decision letters.

Please feel free to contact me if you require any clarification or have further questions regarding this request.

Yours sincerely,

CR

-----Original Message-----

You have contacted the Freedom of Information Team at the Commonwealth Department of Education (the department). If your email relates to a Freedom of Information (FOI) application made under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act), the department will respond as soon as possible.

This email address is only for applications for access to documents under the FOI Act. The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related enquiries sent to this email address, and accordingly, emails sent to this email address that are not FOI related will not be responded to or forwarded.

CRICOS Codes

If you are seeking information relating to the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), information about Australian education providers offering courses to people studying in Australia on student visas and the courses offered, including CRICOS codes, is available at [1]http://cricos.education.gov.au//. Monthly CRICOS data exports are available at [2]https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos.
The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related CRICOS enquiries sent to this email address.

Non-FOI Enquiries

If you have a non-FOI related enquiry for the department, you can contact the department by using the online enquiry form at [3]https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co....

Regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.

References

Visible links
1. http://cricos.education.gov.au/
2. https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos
3. https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FOI #12111 email]

This request has been made by an individual using Right to Know. This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. More information on how Right to Know works can be found at:
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offi...

Please note that in some cases publication of requests and responses will be delayed.

If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Notice:

The information contained in this email message and any attached files may be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any attachments.

hide quoted sections

You have contacted the Freedom of Information Team at the Commonwealth
Department of Education (the department). If your email relates to a
Freedom of Information (FOI) application made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act), the department will respond as soon
as possible.

This email address is only for applications for access to documents under
the FOI Act. The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related
enquiries sent to this email address, and accordingly, emails sent to this
email address that are not FOI related will not be responded to or
forwarded.

CRICOS Codes

If you are seeking information relating to the Commonwealth Register of
Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), information about
Australian education providers offering courses to people studying in
Australia on student visas and the courses offered, including CRICOS
codes, is available at [1]http://cricos.education.gov.au//. Monthly CRICOS
data exports are available at [2]https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos.
The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related CRICOS enquiries
sent to this email address.

Non-FOI Enquiries

If you have a non-FOI related enquiry for the department, you can contact
the department by using the online enquiry form at
[3]https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co....

Regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments.

References

Visible links
1. http://cricos.education.gov.au/
2. https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos
3. https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co...

Dear CR

Thank you for your response, and for advising that you would like to exclude personal information about third parties from the scope of your request.

This may remove the need to consult third parties about the proposed disclosure of their personal information. However, once an FOI decision maker has reviewed the documents falling within the scope of your request, they will advise you if third party consultation is required.

Consultation may still be required with third parties in relation to any business information that may be contained in charge notices or charge decisions. Please advise us by COB Wednesday 16 October 2024 if you would also like to exclude business information about third parties from the scope of your request. If you exclude business information about third parties from the scope of your request, this may result in the scope of FOI requests quoted in charge notices and/or decisions (or parts of them) being redacted. If we do not hear from you by this date, we will assume that you do not wish to exclude business information about third parties and will proceed on the basis of the further revised scope, which is set out as follows:

“1. The most recent 30 notices of charges issued to FOI applicants.

For each of these 30 requests, if applicable, please also provide:

2. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following applicant contention.

3. Any subsequent decisions regarding charges following internal or external review.

The time period for my request is from 1 July 2022 to 1 October 2024.

Please exclude the following information:
i) Personal information of FOI applicants, including supporting evidence or details of personal circumstances in a financial hardship contention.
ii) Emails that attached the charges notices/decision letters.
iii) Personal information of third parties.”

Please do not hesitate to contact [email address] if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

-----Original Message-----
From: CR <[FOI #12111 email]>
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2024 4:16 PM
To: Education - FOI <[Department of Education request email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - FOI charges letters [SEC=OFFICIAL]

**************************************************************************
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organisation. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe.
**************************************************************************

Dear Freedom of Information Team,

I wish to exclude the personal information of third parties.

Please confirm that this will remove the need for third party consultation.