Decision and Statement of Reasons made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982
Decision and reason for decision of Erin (Position Number 62315640), Information Law
Section, Legal Services and Audit Branch, Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Applicant:
Mr Alan Ashmore
Decision date:
29 November 2021
FOI reference number:
LEX 46925
Sent by email:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Mr Ashmore
Freedom of Information Request: LEX 46925
Decision
1.
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (
department) has undertaken a reasonable search of its
records and I have made a decision to grant full access to one (1) document within the scope
of your request. The document has been produced under section 17 of the
Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (
FOI Act).
2.
The document that I have decided to release in full is set out in
Schedule 1.
Authority to make decision
3.
I am authorised by the Secretary of the department to make decisions about access to
documents in the possession of the department in accordance with section 23(1) of the FOI
Act.
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Summary
4.
On Thursday 28 October you made a request for access to documents in the possession of
the department. Your request sought access to:
The percentage of high impact errors, (HIE), for the following period:
1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021.
For the following:
: MRCA Initial Liability Claims,
: DRCA Initial Liability Claims,
: MRCA Permanent Impairment, and
: DRCA Permanent Impairment.
I request that each of the above categories be further broken up to include the following:
: Number of cases checked.
: Total number of work elements.
: Number of work elements with HIE, and
: HIE correctness rate.
5.
As no extensions of time have been applied to process your request, a decision on your
request is due by 29 November 2021.
6.
I have decided not to impose a charge in relation to this request, in accordance with
Regulation 8 of the
Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019.
Material taken into account
7.
In reaching my decision, I have taken into account:
the terms of your request
the documents that fall within the scope of your request
the content of the documents that fall within the scope of your request
consultations with departmental officers about the nature of the documents and
the operating environment and functions of the department
the guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section
93A of the FOI Act (
FOI Guidelines)
the
Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulations 2019 the FOI Act.
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Information Publication Scheme
8.
The Information Publication Scheme requires the department to publish information
released in response to individual requests made under the FOI Act, except in specified
circumstances.
9.
I am of the view that details of your request should be made available on the department’s
FOI Disclosure Log. As such, details of your request will be published on the department’s
FOI Disclosure Log which can be accessed at
http://www.dva.gov.au/about-dva/freedom-
information/foi-disclosure-log. Please note that the department does not publish details of
FOI applicants, it only publishes details of the FOI request and the documents released in
response to the request.
10.
The document to be released to you in accordance with the FOI Act is attached
11.
Your rights of review are available at
Schedule 2 below if you are dissatisfied with this
decision.
Yours sincerely,
Erin (Position Number 62315640)
Senior Legal Officer
Information Law Section
Legal Services and Audit Branch
29 November 2021
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FOI 46925
Schedule 1
Schedule of documents
Applicant:
Mr Ashmore
Decision date:
29 November 2021
FOI reference number:
FOI 46295
Doc
Date of
Document description
Pages Decision Exemption
No.
document
provision
1 Not Dated
Compensation QA 2020-21 Q4 Correctness Rates
1
Full Access
NIL
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FOI 46925
Schedule 2
Your rights of review
12.
If you are dissatisfied with my decision, you may apply for internal review or request the
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (
OAIC) review my decision.
13.
If you are dissatisfied with my decision you may apply for Information Commissioner Review
of the decision through the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (
OAIC). In
accordance with section 54E(b) of the FOI Act, internal review is not available as the
department did not finalise your FOI request within the prescribed statutory timeframe.
Internal review
14.
Under section 54 of the FOI Act, you may apply in writing to the department for an Internal
Review of my decision. The Internal Review application must be made within 30 days of the
date of this letter. Where possible please attach reasons why you believe review of the
decision is necessary. The internal review will be carried out by another officer within 30
days.
15.
You can make your application for Internal Review in one of the following ways:
Post:
Legal Services and Audit Branch, Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601
Email:
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
OAIC review
16.
Under section 54L of the FOI Act, you may apply to the OAIC to review my decision. An
application for review by OAIC must be made in writing within 60 days of the date of this
letter, and be lodged in one of the following ways:
Online:
www.oaic.gov.au
Post:
Director of FOI Dispute Resolution
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218, Sydney NSW 2001
Facsimile:
(02) 9284 9666
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Phone:
1300 363 992
Email:
xxxxx@xxxx.xxx.xx
1. More information about your review rights under the FOI Act is available in Fact Sheet 12
published by the OAIC:
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-
complaints/information-commissioner-review/
Contact us
2.
If you wish to discuss this decision, please do not hesitate to contact the Information Law
Section using the following details:
Online:
https://www.dva.gov.au/about-us/overview/reporting/freedom-
information/access-information
Post:
Information Law, Legal Services and Audit Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601
Phone:
1800 838 372
Email:
xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx@xxx.xxx.xx
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