If not delivered return to PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
4 May 2016
Our reference: LEX 18786
Ms Ashley Flockhart
By email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ms Flockhart
Your Freedom of Information Request – Acknowledgment and Consultation
I refer to your request for access to documents under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982
(the
FOI Act). The current scope of your request is for:
'I write to you under the freedom of information act. I would like to request for
documents regarding breaches of confidentiality by psychologists in the past two
financial years.'.
Your request was received by the department on 29 April 2016 and subject to clarification of
the matters set out below, the department has a 30 day statutory period for processing your
request.
Access to documents / practical refusal
Section 11 of the FOI Act states that a person may request access to documents of an
agency.
Section 4 of the FOI Act provides that:
(1) In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:
Document includes:
(a) Any of, or part of any of, the following things:
(i)
any paper or other materials on which there is writing;
(ii)
a map, plan, drawing or photograph;
(iii) any paper or other material on which there are marks, figures, symbols
or perforations having a meaning for persons qualified to interpret
them;
(iv) any article or material from which sounds, images, or writings are
capable of being reproduced with or without the aid of any other
article or device;
(v)
any article on which information has been stored or recorded, either
mechanically or electronically;
(vi) any other record of information; or
(b) any copy, reproduction or duplicate of such a thing; or
(c) any part of such a copy, reproduction or duplicate;
But does not include;
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(d) material maintained for reference purposes that is otherwise publically
available; or
(e) Cabinet notebooks.
Your request does not clearly identify the documents which you are seeking, in accordance
with section 4(1)(a) of the FOI Act; rather, it identifies subject matter which could be
contained in a broad range of documents. For this reason, the ability of the department to
undertake effective searches and identify all relevant documents is prohibitively restricted.
For this reason, the department identifies that based on your current scope, a practical
refusal reason exists, as provided for in section 24AA of the FOI Act.
Requriement to refine the scope of your request
As it stands, the department considers that it cannot process your request, without further
clarification of the scope of documents that you are seeking access too. We intend to engage
in a request consultation process with you, in accordance with section 24AB of the FOI Act.
In accordance with section 24AB(2)(e) and section 24A(6) of the FOI Act, you have 14 days
from the date of this notice to do one of the following:
- Withdraw the request;
- Make a revised request; or
- Indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During the request consultation period, the processing time for your application is stopped;
once you do one of the above, the processing timeframe will recommence.
We invite you to submit a revised request to xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx. In
making such a submission, you might wish to consider:
- What types of documents you are seeking (for example, statistics or policy
documents);
- For what purpose you believe the department would hold these documents; and
- Any other clarification that you believe could assist the department in identifying
relevant documents.
Alternatively, we request that you contact xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx, so
that we can provide you with the direct contact number of the FOI Officer handling this
request. The FOI Officer will then be happy to assist in refining the scope of your request.
If you choose to make no submission to the department, before the expiration of the 14 day
request consulation process (by 18 May 2016), the department will consider your request to
be withdrawn, in accordance with section 24A(7) of the FOI Act.
Charges
The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your revised request and
the amount of any such charge as soon as practicable after you respond. 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 which we can send notices to. You
have advised your electronic address is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
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Department of Human Services
We will send all notices and correspondence to this address. Please advise us as soon as
possible if you wish correspondence to be sent to another address or if your address
changes. If you do not advise us of changes to your address, correspondence and notices
will continue to be sent to the address specified above.
Disclosure Log
Please note that information released under FOI Act may be published in a disclosure log on
the department's website. Section 11C of the FOI Act requires this publication, however it is
subject to certain exceptions, including where publication of personal, business, professional
or commercial information would be unreasonable.
Exclusion of junior department employee details
The department is working towards ensuring that all employees have a choice about whether
they provide their full name, personal logon identifiers and direct contact details in response
to public enquiries. Where such details are included in the scope of a request, this may add
to processing time and applicable charges as it may be necessary to consider whether the
details are exempt under the FOI Act. On this basis, unless you tell us otherwise, we will
assume that these details are out of scope of your request and they will be redacted under
section 22 of the FOI Act.
Further assistance
If you have any questions, please email xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
FOI Delegate
Freedom of Information Team
FOI and Litigation Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
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Department of Human Services
