OFFICIAL

Good afternoon Roger,

Thank you for contacting Freedom of Information at the Department of
Defence.

We have received your email and you will be advised of the status of your
inquiry by an FOI team member soon.

Please note: due to the current impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on Defence’s
ability to process FOI requests, we may seek your agreement to a 30 day
extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act. An FOI team member
will be in touch with you to discuss this. We appreciate your patience
during this period.

Kind regards,

Gregory Chambers|Freedom of Information

Department of Defence

e [1][email address]

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OFFICIAL

Good morning Roger,

Thank you for your FOI inquiry, dated Thursday 25^th November 2021,
relating to documents relation to the Navy School of Warfare.

I note that your request is seeking access to 'documents' relating to the
above mentioned matter.  Please be advised that a request for any/all
documents concerning a particular subject will likely attract refusal
under section 24AA of the FOI Act because, with few exceptions, it would
simply not be possible for the decision maker to certify that he or she
has identified every copy of every document in the Department's
possession. To do so would require a search of every hard copy file and
the electronic communication and records management systems used by
Defence.  It is considered that the workload involved in conscientiously
attempting to do so would involve a substantial and unreasonable diversion
of the resources of the agency.

A) The document detailing the current trainee assessment policy in the
Navy School of Maritime Warfare.

The above scope is definitely achievable.

B) The document detailing the policy, or internal memos within the last
two years between staff at the School of Maritime Warfare, permitting,
discussing or prohibiting trainees marking examinations of other trainees.

The area has advised narrowing the scope of  the above request to a
particular faculty i.e Principal Warfare Officer (PWO) Faculty, Combat
Systems (CS) Faculty, Information Warfare (IW) Faculty, or Maritime
Warfare West (MW-W). This would reduce the scope considerably and give the
area a more achievable timeline to locate documents within the FOI
timeframes.

C) Annual trainee failure rates in the Navy School of Maritime Warfare for
the previous ten years.

The above scope is too voluminous to process in its current form and the
work involved in processing the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the area from its day to day
operations. The large number of current and inactive courses would need to
be confirmed, then the data sourced and compiled to achieve the desired
information. Revising the scope to a particular faculty/faculties would
also require considerable time to process and would be assessed to take
approx, three weeks.

Taking the above into consideration, under section 24AA of the FOI Act and
for the purposes of section 24 of the FOI Act, Defence considers that a
'practical refusal reason' exists in relation to your FOI request except
for Scope A.  Specifically, Defence considers that the work involved in
processing the request in its current form would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the Defence from its other
operations.  In particular, a very significant amount of resources would
have to be diverted to arrange for the required searches to be undertaken,
to then review any documents that were identified as being possibly
relevant to your request.  And finally, to undertake the decision making
process on any documents that did meet the parameters of your request.

This diversion would constitute a significant drain on the resources of
the agency, and would have an unreasonable, substantial and adverse effect
in the ability of areas to conduct their normal business.

In accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act, Defence is required to
consult with you advising of the intention to refuse access to your
request in its current form except for Scope A.

In accordance with paragraph 24AB(2)(c) of the FOI Act, I am the nominated
person with whom you should contact with a view to agreeing to one of the
following options:

    a.    withdraw your request

    b.    revise your request; or

    c.    indicate that you do not wish to revise your request.

In accordance with section 24AB(9) of the FOI Act, Defence is only
required to undertake this consultation process once, and you must contact
me within 14 days to discuss.

I encourage you to contact me so I can assist you in moving forward with
your inquiry.

Kind regards,

Gregory Chambers|Freedom of Information

Department of Defence

e [1][email address]

IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of the Department of Defence.
Unauthorised communication and dealing with the information in the email
may be a serious criminal offence. If you have received this email in
error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the email
immediately.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]