FOI 66674
Request consultation notice due to existence of a practical refusal
reason
Applicant:
Mr Alan Ashmore
Decision date:
10 May 2024
FOI reference number:
LEX 66674
Sent by email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ashmore,
Freedom of Information Request: LEX 66674
Purpose of this notice
1.
The purpose of this notice is to undertake an informal consultation process prior before
providing you with a statement of reasons in accordance with paragraph 3.161 of the FOI
Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of the
Freedom of Information Act 1982:
“Where an access refusal decision is deemed to have been made before a substantive
decision is made, the agency or minister continues to have an obligation to provide a
statement of reasons on the FOI request. This obligation to provide a statement of
reasons on the FOI request continues until any IC review of the deemed decision is
finalised.”
2.
No statutory powers under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 are being exercised in this
informal process. Any reference to statutory provision in this notice should not be taken as
the Department exercising a power under the FOI Act.
3.
Based on the terms of your request, and from initial searches undertaken to respond to your
request, I am of the view that a practical refusal reason exists because:
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a. Your request does not provide sufficient information to enable the department to
identify the documents you are seeking.
.
Authority to make decision
4.
I, Zoey (Position Number 62214764), Senior Information Access Officer, Information Access
Unit, Client and Information Access Branch, am an officer authorised by the Secretary of the
Department to make decisions about access to documents in the possession of the
Department.
Scope of your request
5.
On 04 April 2024 you made a request for access to documents in the possession of the
Department. Your request sought access to:
‘…I am seeking EVERY client satisfaction survey covering the period 1 July 2022 to 31
March 2024…'
6.
On 10 April 2024, the Department acknowledged your request via email.
7.
After preliminary searches were conducted, it was evident that the scope of your request
was too broad. As such, on 03 May 2024 I informally consulted you to help understand your
request. Specifically I sought clarification to the following :
- Which business area/s may hold the documents;
- Who "client" references (e.g., Staff, veterans, other);
- Please identify a general theme/context which the content refers to (e.g. feedback for a
certain activity, involvement with certain services/providers, other); and
- Any other relevant information.
8.
On 07 May 2024 you replied with clarification to the meaning of client. Thank you for taking
the time and clarifying that with us. Unfortunately however, no additional information was
provided that would allow the Department to identify the documents you are seeking by
way of identifying specific business areas or a theme/context.
9.
Additionally, I would like to reiterate that we provided the following information in relation
to a similar request. This similar request was under LEX 65732 and the information provided
to you on 04 April 2024:
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“There were no results from a ‘2022-2023 client satisfaction survey’ as this is not a survey
which took place and the last survey in the project is the 2021-2022 survey.”
Power to refuse a request
10. If the Department is satisfied that a practical refusal reason exists in relation to a request,
the Department must undertake a consultation process with you, and if, after that
consultation process, the Department remains satisfied that the practical refusal reason still
exists, the Department may refuse to give you access to the documents subject to the
request.
11. However, before I make a decision to refuse your request you have an opportunity to revise
your request to remove the practical refusal reason. This is called a ‘request consultation
process’. You have 07 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below. As
mentioned below, you can request more time to consider and respond to this notice. Please
let me know if you would like additional time to respond.
When does a practical refusal reason exist.
12. The practical refusal reason applicable to your request is that:
a. Your request does not provide sufficient information to enable the department to
identify the documents you are seeking.
Identification of documents
13. A practical refusal reason exists in relation to a request for a document if the request does
not provide sufficient information to enable the department to identify the documents you
are seeking. A request must provide such information concerning the document as is
reasonably necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency to identify it.
14. I am unable to identify the specific documents you are requesting. This is because the
language of your request is unclear and it does not contain sufficient information to enable
me to undertake reasonable and effective searches to identify relevant documents for the
following reasons:
15. The wording of your request refers broadly to
“EVERY client satisfaction survey covering the
period 1 July 2022 to 31 March 2024.” In order to assist us in conducting searches, please
consider providing a business area or business areas that we can engage with in order to
source the documents you are seeking.
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16. Please see find the link to the DVA Organisational Chart to identify a relevant Business Area
via https://www.dva.gov.au/about/overview/organisational-chart.
Ways you can revise the scope of your request
17. You now have an opportunity to revise your request so that the grounds for a practical
refusal are removed.
18. Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more
manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by
providing more specific information about exactly what documents you are interested in, we
will be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to
process documents you are not interested in.
19. For example, you may want to consider:
providing further clarification about the specific documents you are seeking access to
(eg. title of the survey);
a narrower scope of documents to a more specific time frame;
indicating which business area or business areas where we should request the
documents related to your scope.
20. Please note that even if you do modify your request, it is possible that a practical refusal
reason may still exist and the Department may need further time to process your revised
request. This will depend on the revision you agree to make. As far as is reasonably
practicable, we are happy to provide you with further information to assist you in revising
your request so that it removes the practical refusal grounds.
Next steps
21. Before the end of the consultation period, which is
COB Friday 17 May 2024 (being 7 days
from receiving this notice), you must do one of the following, in writing:
withdraw the request;
make a revised request; or
indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
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22. During this period, you can ask me for help to revise your request. If you revise your request
in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal grounds outlined above, we will
recommence processing it.
23. If you indicate you do not wish to revise your request, the Department will proceed to make
a decision on whether to refuse the request on the grounds that processing your request will
result in a diversion of the Department’s resources.
24. If you do not respond in one of these ways within 7 days (by
COB Friday 17 May 2024), the
request will be taken to have been withdrawn.
25. If you need more time to respond, please contact the Information Access Unit via the below
contacts, within the 7 day period to discuss your need for an extension of time.
Contact us
26. If you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the Information Access
Unit using the following details:
Post:
Information Access Unit,
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998, Brisbane QLD 4001
Email:
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
Zoey (Position Number 62214764)
Senior Information Access Officer
Information Access Unit
Client and Information Access Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
10 May 2024
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