Thank you for contacting the Information and Privacy Unit.

We acknowledge receipt of your email and advise it may take up to ten days
for a response due to the high volume of applications currently being
managed by the Information and Privacy Unit.

To avoid any delays in processing your application, please ensure you have
provided an Identification Document (ID) and scope of application:
including the NT Health facility which holds the information you are
seeking.

Dear Isabel

I am contacting you with regard to your email correspondence of 23 July
2023, seeking to access government information held with the Department of
Health (NT Health) pursuant to the provisions of the Information Act 2002
(the Act).

Your request has been made in the following terms:

I'm requesting a full formal 'Vaccine Safety Surveillance Report' for the
years of 2020, 2021 and 2022. That of similar to the Western Australian
report of 2021.

[1]https://www.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Cor...

Without any amendments, alterations and editing in any way, shape or form.

Section 18 of the Act sets out how an application must be made and section
18(2A) of the Act provides that:

o The application is to be accompanied by the application fee.

As your request relates to government information an application fee of
$30.00 is applicable. Payment of this fee can be made by cheque, payable
to the Receiver of Territory Monies (RTM) and sent to the Information and
Privacy Unit, Department of Health, PO Box 40596 Casuarina NT 0811.
Alternatively, you may contact RTM on 08 8999 1606 and make a direct
payment quoting cost code: 70100380 166311 and reference: FOI2023/235.

The Act provides that a public sector organisation may waive or reduce a
fee payable under the Act, having regard to either the circumstances of an
application or the objects of the Act. Should you wish to apply for a
waiver or reduction of the application fee, please complete the attached
Application for Waiver or Reduction of Fees. Please ensure that you
include sufficient detail and evidence supporting your grounds for a
waiver or reduction of this fee.

Section 18(3) of the Act provides:

·         Before accepting an application, a public sector organisation
must satisfy itself as to the identity of the applicant

The Act provides that a person may apply to a public sector organisation
for access to government records, and requires that a public sector
organisation is satisfied as to the identify of that person. To satisfy
this requirement of the Act, please provide this office with a copy of an
appropriate identification document. This can be submitted via email to
[2][email address] and does not require certification.

Section 18(2)(d) of the Act requires that an application is to:

·         Specify an address to which correspondence regarding the
application may be sent to the applicant.

While this is not specified in your correspondence of 23 July 2023, NT
Health will communicate with you directly to your provided email address
of [3][FOI #10500 email] unless or until you
advise otherwise.

For your information, I note that section 18(2)(c) of the Act provides
that an application is to:

o Include sufficient details to identify the information.

On receiving your correspondence of 23 July 2023, this unit undertook a
preliminary search process to ensure that the terms of your application
were sufficient to meet the requirement set by this section of the Act. I
confirm that preliminary advice received by the relevant NT Health program
areas indicate that while NT Health provides relevant data to the
Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) at the Department of Health and
Aged Care (Cth), NT Health does not hold documents similar to the Western
Australian document referred to by your terms.

The data provided by NT Health is entered into reports and notifications
that are publicly available on the Australian Government Department of
Health and Aged Care website. I provide the following relevant links for
your information:

[4]Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN) - medicines |
Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

[5]COVID-19 vaccine safety report - 13-07-2023 | Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA)

These preliminary findings are provided to you as a courtesy only and do
not constitute a final decision with regard to this matter. However, in
continuing with your application I must draw your attention to section 12
of the Act, which provides:

12          Publicly available information

                              (1)  The government information mentioned in
this section is publicly available.

                              (2)   Part 3 (Access and correction rights)
does not apply to:

(a)  publications that are distributed free of charge to, or may be
purchased by, the public; or

(b)  material made available to the public for reference purposes.

Please be advised that for the reasons set out in this correspondence,
your application has been determined to not meet the acceptance
requirements of the Act. NT Health will hold this application as pending
for 30 days from the date of this email unless otherwise agreed, after
which the request will be considered closed and withdrawn.  If for any
reason you still require the records requested, a new request for
information will be required.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact the
Information and Privacy Unit.

Kind regards

Information and Privacy Unit
Legal Services
NT Health

Floor 8, Manunda Place, 38 Cavenagh Street, Darwin NT
GPO Box 40596 Casuarina, NT 0811

t.       08 8999 2879
f.       08 8973 9063

e.      [6][email address]

[7]www.health.nt.gov.au/freedom-of-information

[8]cid:image005.png@01D924DE.44850C10

[9][IMG][10]facebook[11]In-2C-128px-R

I acknowledge Aboriginal people as the Traditional Owners of the country I
work on, and their connection to land and community. I pay my respect to
all Traditional Owners, and to the Elders both past and present.

Use or transmittal of the information in this email other than for
authorised NT Government business purposes may constitute misconduct under
the NT Public Sector Code of Conduct and could potentially be an offence
under the NT Criminal Code. If you are not the intended recipient, any
use, disclosure or copying of this message or any attachments is
unauthorised.  If you have received this document in error, please advise
the sender.  No representation is given that attached files are free from
viruses or other defects. Scanning for viruses is recommended.

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The [email address] inbox is no longer monitored. Please
direct all emails to [email address] or phone: (08) 8999 2402.

Dear Isabel

Your enquiry has been referred to the DCDD FOI unit.

Thanks and regards

Faith Woodford
Senior Legal Support Officer
Legal Services
NT Health

Floor 8, Manunda Place, 38 Cavenagh Street, Darwin NT
GPO Box 40596, Casuarina NT 0811

t.       08 8999 2879
f.       08 8973 9063
e. [NT Department of Health request email]

nt.gov.au
health.nt.gov.au

I acknowledge Aboriginal people as the Traditional Owners of the country I work on, and their connection to land and community. I pay my respect to all Traditional Owners, and to the Elders both past and present.
Use or transmittal of the information in this email other than for authorised NT Government business purposes may constitute misconduct under the NT Public Sector Code of Conduct and could potentially be an offence under the NT Criminal Code. If you are not the intended recipient, any use, disclosure or copying of this message or any attachments is unauthorised.  If you have received this document in error, please advise the sender.  No representation is given that attached files are free from viruses or other defects. Scanning for viruses is recommended.

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Dear Isobel

Thank you for your email query below.

Our unit has made an enquiry to NT Health on your behalf and provide you
with the following information:

Thank you for forwarding this enquiry. Please note the answer is unchanged
from that provided last year.

Specifically,

o NT Health does not create or retain a document meeting the scope of
this query, nor are there any similar documents and/or records held by
NT Health that could reasonably be considered relevant to the scope
provided.

o NT Health  provides relevant data to the Commonwealth which is entered
onto the [1]Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN) - medicines
| Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) which is accessible to the
public.

Should you wish to progress with a Freedom of Information application
under the Information Act 2002 (the Act), based on the information before
me it would be my preliminary view that the information either does not
exist within NT Health or is publicly available and therefore not subject
to the access provisions of the Act.

Regards,

Freedom of Information Unit

Department of Corporate and Digital Development | Northern Territory
Government

E: [2][email address]  

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It may contain legally privileged or confidential information that is
subject to copyright. If you are not the intended recipient you must not
use, disclose copy or distribute this communication. If you have received
this message in error, please delete the e-mail and notify the sender. No
representation is made that this e-mail is free of viruses. Virus scanning
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Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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