OFFICIAL: Sensitive

Good afternoon Reasonable Prospects,

Please note, we have recently updated our Freedom of Information webform
which is our preferred method for FOI request submissions. It would be
greatly appreciated when submitting requests in the future if you could
please lodge them through the FOI [1]webform.

I refer to your request dated 7 January 2026, seeking access to documents
under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the Act) as follows:

I request:
- The current or most recent version of the Standard Operating Procedure
on Interviewing Vulnerable Witnesses (including if the current version has
a slightly different title)
- The SOP on Interviewing Vulnerable Witnesses as at 1 August 2023 (or the
most equivalent policy document if this particular SOP was created later
than 1 August 2023)
- The SOP on Interviewing Vulnerable Witnesses, or its nearest equivalent,
as at 1 July 2022

Timeframe – Seeking your agreement to an extension of time

Upon consideration of your request, the AFP is of the view that your
request will take longer than 30 days to process.  The delay is
regrettable, however, due to an excessive number of requests that have
come through our office it will not be possible to advise you of a
decision by 9 February 2026.

Accordingly, pursuant to section 15AA of the Act, I seek your agreement to
extend the period by 30 days to notify you of a decision by 10 March 2026

I would be grateful if you would advise this office in writing of your
agreement to the proposed extension of time by close of business Friday 16
January 2026.

Consents – Please provide your response: YES/NO

Please advise this office whether you consent to exclude the following
information:

• All identifying information of AFP members and Commonwealth employees
below SES level (names, ID numbers, signatures, images) (AFP members
and Commonwealth employees);
• AFP and Commonwealth agency contact details other than the official
public channels (direct telephone numbers and email addresses);
• Job titles of AFP members and Commonwealth employees below SES;
• Draft documents;
• Personal information of any individual other than you from the
documents you are seeking;

• Information provided by third parties to the AFP from the documents
you are seeking;
• All information about any third parties from the documents you are
seeking;
• Duplicate documents; and
• Documents you have already provided to us, or that we have already
sent to you.

Please advise this office of the following: YES/NO

• Do the documents you seek relate to current court proceedings? and
• Are the documents you are seeking older than 20 years old?:

Disclosure of your identity: YES/NO

The AFP may be required to consult with third parties in accordance with
sections 26A, 27 and 27A of the Act. Please advise us if you consent to
being identified as a third party where consultation with a third party is
necessary? If we do not receive your consent, we will not disclose your
identity to third parties.

Information Publication Scheme

Please be advised that effective 1 May 2011 and in accordance with section
8(2) of the Act, an agency is required to publish information on the AFP
website following the notification of a decision in respect of a freedom
of information request. Details of the decision will be published in a
Disclosure Log which can be found at
[2]https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/informat....

The requirement to publish information released under FOI reinforces the
objectives of the FOI Act to promote a pro-disclosure culture across
government, and to increase recognition that information held by
government is a national resource. Exceptions to the requirement to
publish information would apply to personal information and information
concerning the business affairs of a person if it was considered
‘unreasonable’ to do so. 

If however, after noting the above, you wish to raise any concerns about
the publication of information concerning your request prior to the
notification of a decision, please advise the AFP in writing before 9
February 2026.

If you have any queries in relation to this matter, please do not hesitate
to contact our team at [3][AFP request email].

Yours sincerely,

LIBBY
Writing to you from Ngunnawal Country
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION OFFICER
[4]Australian Federal Police

References

Visible links
1. https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/governan...
2. https://www.afp.gov.au/about-us/informat...
3. mailto:[AFP request email]
4. http://www.afp.gov.au/

OFFICIAL

Dear Reasonable Prospects,

I write concerning your Freedom of Information requests made to the AFP. I
seek your confirmation on the requests as they currently stand.

LEX 5029

SES includes acting SES.
I request any document in the period 1-31 August 2023 inclusive sent to or
received from the Commonwealth government, or part thereof (including
ministers' offices), relating to the Sofronoff Inquiry.

I request a copy of any policy that defines ‘the threshold to charge and
the considerations which should inform a police officer's application of
the threshold to a given case’ (Sofronoff Inquiry Recommendation 1),
including draft polices, that existed from 1 August - 30 November 2023
inclusive.

I request any document in the period 1-31 August 2023 inclusive sent to or
from an AFP SES employee in the ACT Policing part of the AFP relating to
the Sofronoff Inquiry.
SES includes acting SES and 'in the ACT Policing part' includes in ACT
Policing for any portion of August 2023.

I request documents within the following scope:
1. Created 1-30 August 2023 inclusive, or
2. Created 1-31 July 2024 inclusive, or
3. Created 1-30 June 2025 inclusive, and
4. Include the word "Sofronoff", or
5. Include a misspelling of "Sofronoff", such as "Sofrnoff" or "Sofronof"
or similar, and
6. Are internal to AFP (as against, for example, an email received from or
sent to another government entity), and
7. Are not text messages.
For example, emails and Microsoft Teams chats within the above scope.

I request a copy of any document created on or after 1 August 2023 that
is, or could be understood to be, a communication to ACT Policing or a
subset of ACT Policing regarding the Sofronoff inquiry
For example, an email to all AFP employees (ACT Policing and Federal) is
included because ACT Policing is a subset of all AFP and therefore a
communication to all AFP is necessarily a communication to ACT Policing
For example, an email to all SACAT officers (or similar / however
described) is included because SACAT is a subset of ACT Policing
For example, an email to the investigator/s in a specific investigation is
not included because individual investigator/s are not a subset of ACT
Policing in the relevant way, and/or, their sergeant giving them advice
about a specific investigation is a communication regarding that
investigation, not regarding the Sofronoff inquiry.

I request any training documents that were created in furtherance of
Sofronoff Inquiry Recommendation 1, or otherwise relate to that
recommendation

I request a copy of any current policy that defines ‘the threshold to
charge and the considerations which should inform a police officer's
application of the threshold to a given case’ (Sofronoff Inquiry
Recommendation 1).

You have previously indicated you wish to withdraw requests 9, 10, and 11.
Are you please able to indicate which parts of the above request that
relates to?

LEX 5031

I agree to change the scope for LEX 5031 to a list of all PROMIS numbers
for cases considered by Operation Foster, where that list also includes
the case status as at the date of the FOI request (5 December 2025).

LEX 5189

                For any case whose PROMIS number is within (the amended)
scope of LEX 5029 (that is, Op Foster cases), and where at any point in
that case's history its case status has been some version of
'               finalised', I request the Sexual Offence Case Finalisation
Note.

LEX 5187

I request a copy of any training materials created for or used by ACT
Policing on or after 1 March 2024 where those training materials could be
understood to 'challenge rape myths' or educate about 'the dynamics of
sexual violence, including grooming and coercive control, and the law
related to sexual offences (including evidence law)'

LEX 5185

                I request the current or most recent version of any
Memorandum of Understanding between ACT Policing (and/or AFP) and Victim
Support ACT

LEX 5184

I request:
- The current or most recent version of the Standard Operating Procedure
on Interviewing Vulnerable Witnesses (including if the current version has
a slightly different title)
- The SOP on Interviewing Vulnerable Witnesses as at 1 August 2023 (or the
most equivalent policy document if this particular SOP was created later
than 1 August 2023)
- The SOP on Interviewing Vulnerable Witnesses, or its nearest equivalent,
as at 1 July 2022

I would appreciate if you could please confirm that the above requests are
correct, as well as provide further information on LEX 5029. A response by
close of business Thursday, 22 January 2026 would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

LIBBY
Writing to you from Ngunnawal Country
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION OFFICER
[1]Australian Federal Police

References

Visible links
1. http://www.afp.gov.au/