9 November 2017
Dan Monceaux
By email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Monceaux
Notice of intention to refuse FOI request - request consultation process
I refer to your request dated 15 October 2017 seeking access under the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (the FOI Act) to:
‘electronic copies (scans) of all minutes of all meetings of the EFIC board since its
establishment’
This is a notice of an intention to refuse access to the documents you have
requested because a 'practical refusal reason' exists under section 24(1) of the FOI
Act. I am issuing this notice under section 24AB(2) of the FOI Act.
The practical refusal reason is that the work involved in processing the request
would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of Efic from its other
operations as specified in subsection 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act.
Request is substantial
Following initial enquiries, I estimate that 122 hours of processing time is required to
deal with this request (excluding the time required to search for and retrieve
electronic documents).
The reasons for this are as follows:
• FOI Act s 12 states that the FOI Act does not apply to documents which are
under the ‘open access period’ in the
Archives Act 1983. The
Archives Act s 3(7) confirms that as at today’s date, the ‘open access period’ covers all
documents up to and including 1993. Therefore in accordance with FOI Act
s 12, you can only be provided with any documents dated 1994 onwards.
• Searches have confirmed that from 1994 through to the date of your request,
there are a total of 189 Board Minutes documents. As your request is
presently framed, all 189 of these documents are likely to be within the
scope of your request.
• A sampling exercise was conducted with 24 of the 189 documents randomly
sampled (one from each year) to ascertain the number of pages in each of
Level 10 Export House, 22 Pitt St. Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
PO Box R65 Royal Exchange NSW 1225 • ABN 96 874 024 697
Phone +61 2 8273 5333 • Fax +61 2 9251 3851 • efic.gov.au
those documents. The average number of pages of these sampled
documents was 7.8 pages.
• On the basis these documents average 7.8 pages each, approximately 1,474
pages of material will require examination.
• I estimate that examination of each page would take an average of 5
minutes, including consideration of the possible applicability of Efic’s
exemption as set out at Schedule 2, Part II of the FOI Act, and possible
redaction for that and any other applicable exemptions.
• Based on the estimate of 5 minutes per page, of an estimated 1,474 pages,
this would take an estimated 7,371 minutes of processing time.
In other words, if one person were to dedicate themselves to processing this request
full time, it would take them 122 hours, or 17 days, or more than 3 weeks.
Accordingly I am satisfied that this is a 'substantial' request.
As referred to above, we would also draw to your attention the fact that an
exemption under the
FOI Act applies to Efic, for documents concerning anything
done by it under Parts 4 or 5 of the
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation Act
1991(Cth). Without drawing any conclusions at such an early stage, I would note
that the exemption applies to documents regarding these functions, which will likely
have an effect on the number of documents able to be provided to you in response
to this FOI request.
Request is unreasonable
For the purpose of providing this notice, I have considered whether the substantial
resource burden would be unreasonable having regard to the following:
• The number of personnel and the time required to assist with the processing
and decision-making for this FOI request;
• The likely application of the Efic exemption (as set out at Schedule 2, Part II
of the FOI Act) to many of the documents which need to be considered and
which may be relevant; and
• The very broad timeframe of your FOI request.
What you should do?
My colleague Rachael Glasson is the officer with whom you may consult with a view
to making the request in a form that would remove the ground for refusal. You can
contact her by phone on 02 8273 5467 or by email on xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Please note that even if you do modify your request, it is possible that a practical
refusal reason under subsection 24AA(1)(a)(i) may still exist or Efic may need
further time to process your revised request – this will depend upon the terms of
your final request. As far as is reasonably practicable, we are happy to provide you
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation
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with further information to assist you in making your request in such a form that
removes the practical refusal ground.
If you are able to pinpoint the specific documents within your request, or clarify more
particularly the information you are seeking, that would assist. One aspect of the
request that could be revised which may remove the practical refusal reason
specified in subsection 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act, would include narrowing the
timeframe of your request to a shorter time period.
Further consideration would be required by the decision-maker in order to ascertain
whether the practical refusal reason has been removed by any one or more of these
suggestions above. To be clear, agreeing to one of the suggestions listed above
may not be sufficient in and of itself, to remove the practical refusal reason.
I would be pleased to discuss with you in greater detail how your request might be
appropriately revised.
Please note that you have
14 days from the date you receive this notice to either:
• withdraw the request
• make a revised request
• indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
If you do not respond in one of these ways within 14 days the request will be taken
to have been withdrawn pursuant to section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act. If you indicate
you do not wish to revise your request, I will proceed to make a decision on whether
to refuse the request on resource grounds under section 24(1).
If you need more time to respond, please contact me within the 14 day period to
discuss your need for an extension of time.
Please note that under section 24AB(8) of the FOI Act, the time for processing your
FOI request is suspended from the day you receive this notice until the day you do
one of the things listed above.
Yours sincerely
Stephen Farmer
Senior Counsel & Head of Legal
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation
Export Finance and Insurance Corporation
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