PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
22 November 2019
Our reference: LEX 48935
Mr Ben Fairless
Only by email: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Fairless,
Your Freedom of Information Request – Consultation
I refer to your email dated 5 November 2019 to the Department of Human Services
(
department), in which you requested access under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) (
FOI Act) to over 200 of the department’s Operational Blueprints.
A copy of your request is provided at
Attachment A.
We note that your request provided:
‘Please initially consider this an administrative request for access to documents. If
you aren’t able to treat it this way, please consider it a request for documents under
the Freedom of Information Act and the Information Publication Scheme.’
Publicly available material and informal consultation On 18 November 2019, the department acknowledged your request and noted that the
majority of documents you have requested are publicly available on the department’s
Operational Blueprint Webpage, at the following address:
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/SiteMap/debts.html
The department asked you to confirm whether you wished to revise the scope of your
request to:
‘Operational Blueprints that are not already publicly available from the list contained
on the following URL:
http://operational.humanservices.gov.au/public/Pages/SiteMap/debts.html’
To date, the department has not received a response to this communication.
Consultation - your request gives rise to practical refusal reasons
I am consulting with you because processing your request is likely to result in a substantial
and unreasonable diversion of the resources of the department.
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I am asking you to narrow your request so that it is not too large for the department to
process.
This letter is giving you an opportunity to provide us with specific information about the
documents you need. Providing this additional information will assist the department in
processing your request.
If you decide not to provide further information or revise your request, I will have to refuse
your freedom of information request as a 'practical refusal reason' exists.
For a more detailed explanation of what this means, including some suggestions on what to
consider when revising your request, please see
Attachment B.
How to send us a 'revised request'
Before I make a final decision on your request, you can submit a revised request.
Within the next 14 days (consultation period) you must do one of the following, in writing:
withdraw the request;
make a revised request; or
tell us that you do not want to revise your request.
If you do not contact us during the consultation period, we will assume you do not want to
continue with your request. See
Attachment C for relevant sections of the FOI Act.
If you decide to make a revised request you should be specific about what documents you
actually want. This could help the department find the documents.
We have 30 days to give you a decision about your request, however the time taken to
consult with you now is not included in this 30 day time period.
Contact officer
I am the contact officer for your request. During the consultation period you are welcome to
ask for my help in revising your request. You can contact me:
in writing to the address at the top of this letter; or
via email to xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Note: When you contact us please quote the reference number
FOI LEX 48935.
If no response is received within the next 14 days, your request will be taken to have been
withdrawn, pursuant to the operation of the FOI Act.
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Department of Human Services
Further assistance
If you have any FOI questions please email xxx.xxxxx.xxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely,
Riley
Authorised FOI Decision Maker
Freedom of Information Team
Employment Law and Freedom of Information Branch | Legal Services Division
Department of Human Services
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Department of Human Services
PO Box 7820 Canberra BC ACT 2610
Attachment B
Your request is voluminous - section 24(1)(a)(i)
Processing your request is likely to result in a substantial and unreasonable diversion of the
department’s resources. Because of the amount of work involved for the department, under
sections 24AA(1)(a)(i), 24 and 24AA(2) of the FOI Act I intend to refuse your FOI request as
a 'practical refusal reason' exists.
You have requested access to over 235 of the department’s Operational Blueprints. The
department has identified that 60 of the requested Operational Blueprints are not publically
available.
Based on a preliminary sample of documents, the average operational blueprint is between
10-15 pages. Accordingly, the department estimates that there are over 2350 pages of
documents that would fall within the scope of your current request.
Unless you narrow the scope of documents sought, a very large amount of material would
likely be in scope, the processing of which would require an unreasonable diversion of the
department’s resources from its other operations.
To provide a preliminary estimate of the amount of time required to process your request, the
department consulted with the Debt Management Branch and the Seniors, Carers and
International Branch in relation your request (
relevant Branches). As a result of this
consultation, I am satisfied that a substantial time would be required to undertake a full
search and retrieval process, review the sensitivities contained within the documents and
undertake consultation with other affected internal stakeholders.
I estimate that it would take over 325 hours in processing time. This includes the search and
retrieval time for Operational Blueprints that are both publicly and not publicly available and
decision making time on the Operational Blueprints which are not publicly available, including
time to consider redactions under the FOI Act. I consider that these preliminary consultations
provide a fair estimate of how long each Branch would take to search and retrieve
documents within scope.
Amount of time to process your request
I have calculated the number of hours it would take to process your request, based on the
preliminary consultation conducted to date.
Search and retrieval of documents (both publicly available and 220 hours
non-publicly available material)
Examine non-publicly available material for decision making
purposes at an average of 3 minutes per page (based on approx. 30 hours
600 pages)
An additional time of 3 minutes per page for pages that may need 25 hours
redaction (based on approx. 500 pages)
50 hours
Write statement of reasons for decision (regarding administrative
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release and release of documents under the FOI Act)
Approximate total
325 hours
I note the commentary of Senior Member Puplick in
VMQD and Commissioner of Taxation
(Freedom of information) [2018] AATA 4619 (17 December 2018) regarding the extent of the
burden that must be established under s 24AA(1)(a)(i)
‘[101] What constitutes valid practical refusal grounds is thus agency specific and
resource dependent. Nevertheless for any agency, a burden in excess of 200 hours
would almost certainly make the threshold of a rational and objective test. As is
illustrated above (at [97]), burdens as (relatively) small as 74 hours have been so
characterised.
….
[103] The clear responsibility of this Tribunal is to assess the claims made by the
ATO based on the objective material before it and make a balanced judgement
whether or not the potential burden meets to section 24AA(1)(a)(i) threshold – not
whether the burden is “overwhelming” but that it is “substantial and unreasonable.‘
Accordingly, I consider that 325 hours of estimated processing time would be an
unreasonable diversion of the department’s resources.
I am providing you with an opportunity to revise your request in order to narrow the scope of
documents you are seeking and remove any practical refusal reasons that exist in the
processing your request.
Please note that the FOI Guidelines do not allow the department to undertake ‘part
processing’ of an FOI request. Even if some parts of your request are clear or not considered
voluminous, the department must consider your request in its entirety and cannot process
any
part
of
your
request,
while
a
practical
refusal
reason
exists.
Revising the scope of your request
Should you wish to continue with your FOI request, you may wish to consider:
a) reducing the number of documents you are requesting; or
b) withdrawing part of your request.
Please note that even if you do provide a revised scope, one or more practical refusal
reasons may remain if the revised scope is still too large to be processed. You will need to
take this into consideration when revising the scope of your request.
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Department of Human Services
Attachment C
Relevant sections of the Freedom of Information Act 1982
Section 24(1) of the FOI Act provides that an agency may refuse to give access to
documents in accordance with an FOI request if:
a practical refusal reason exists in relation to the request; and
following a request consultation process under section 24AB of the FOI Act, the
agency is satisfied that the practical refusal reason still exists.
Section 24AA(1)(a)(i) of the FOI Act provides that a practical refusal reason exists in relation
to a FOI request if the work involved in processing the request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the resources of the department from its other operations.
Section 24AA(2) of the FOI Act sets out certain factors which the department must consider
when determining whether providing access in relation to a request would substantially and
unreasonably divert the department's resources. The department must specifically have
regard to the resources that would have to be used for:
identifying, locating or collating the documents within the department's filing system;
deciding whether to grant, refuse or defer access to a document to which the request
relates, or to grant access to an edited copy of such a document, including resources
that would have to be used for examining the document or consulting in relation to the
request;
making a copy, or an edited copy, of the document, and
notifying any interim or final decision on the request.
Section 24AB(6) provides that the applicant must, before the end of the consultation period,
do one of the following, by written notice to the agency or Minister:
withdraw the request,
make a revised request, or
indicate that the applicant does not wish to revise the request.
Section 24AB(7) of the FOI Act provides that the request is taken to have been withdrawn at
the end of the consultation period if:
the applicant does not consult the contact person during the consultation period in
accordance with the notice, or
the applicant does not do one of the things mentioned in subsection (6) before the
end of the consultation period.
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Department of Human Services
