ONE NATIONAL CIRCUIT
BARTON
FOI
FOI/2022/042
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982
REQUEST BY:
Ms Karen Reynolds
DECISION BY: Jason Lange
Assistant Secretary
Office of Best Practice Regulation
By email to: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx
Dear Ms Reynolds
I refer to your email of 5 February 2022 in which you made a request (the
FOI request)
under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (the
FOI Act) to the Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet (the
Department) in the following terms:
Please provide any correspondence, notes, emails, reports or memos which relate to:
•
the rationale for commissioning of this work around the value of statistical life*, and;
•
modelling around the value of statistical life in relation to disability and/aged care in
the Covid environment that uses the 2021 VSLY guidance notes and disability
adjusted data as a basis for decision-making.
* https://obpr.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-09/value-of-statistical-life-guidance-note-
2020-08.pdf
Authorised decision-maker
I am authorised to make this decision in accordance with arrangements approved by the
Department’s Secretary under section 23 of the FOI Act.
Decision
I have decided to refuse your request under section 24A(1) of the FOI Act, on the basis that
the Department has taken all reasonable steps to locate the documents you have requested,
and those documents do not exist.
In making this decision, I have had regard to the following:
• the terms of your request;
• my own knowledge of the subject matter;
• the outcome of searches;
• the FOI Act; and
Postal Address: PO Box 6500, CANBERRA ACT 2600
Telephone: +61 2 6271 5849 Fax: +61 2 6271 5776 www.pmc.gov.au ABN: 18 108 001 191
• the Guidelines issued by the Australian Information Commissioner under section 93A of
the FOI Act (the
FOI Guidelines).
Reasons
Section 24A(1) of the FOI Act provides that:
An agency or Minister may refuse a request for access to a document if:
(a) all reasonable steps have been taken to find the document;
and
(b) the agency or Minister is satisfied that the document:
(i)
is in the agency’s or Minister’s possession but cannot be found; or
(ii)
does not exist.
The FOI Guidelines provide that
‘reasonable steps’ would amount to include all appropriate
or suitable search actions that relate to the circumstances surrounding the documents
requested, this includes:
3.88 The Act is silent on what constitutes ‘all reasonable steps’. The meaning of ‘reasonable’
in the context of s 24A(1)(a) has been construed as not going beyond the limit assigned by
reason, not extravagant or excessive, moderate and of such an amount, size or number as is
judged to be appropriate or suitable to the circumstances or purpose.
Based on my own knowledge of the subject matter, and searches undertaken to identify the
administrative process for the update to the document, as referenced in your request, there
was no ‘commisioning’ for the publication of the August 2021 “Best Practice Regulation
Guidance Note Value of Statistical Life” (VSL Guidance Note). Nor does the Department
hold any ‘modelling’ in relation to disability and/aged care in the Covid environment
produced using the VSL Guidance Note. I am satisfied that all reasonable steps have been
taken to identify any documents relevant to your FOI request, and that the documents
requested do not exist.
I have therefore decided to refuse the request under subsection 24A(1) of the FOI Act.
For context, the VSL Guidance Note is a longstanding product from the Office of Best
Practice Regulation (OBPR), that is annually updated and released by OBPR. The August
2021 version of this paper was released to ensure it remained timely and relevant for officials
across the public service, not for any other context. Hence there are no documents held by the
Department regarding the first part of your request. I note that the original VSL Guidance
Note stemmed from the publication of the paper “Establishing a Monetary Value for Lives
Saved; Issues and Controversies” by Dr Peter Abelson. A copy of Dr Abelson’s paper can be
accessed from the Department’s website via the following web link:
https://obpr.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/Working_paper_2_Peter_Abelson.pdf.
In addition, the August 2021 VSL Guidance Note contains references to a number of journal
articles which you may assist you with your research, and should you be interested, the
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publish disability weights for most diseases that
can be used to adjust the value of a statistical life year (VLY) in the VSL Guidance Note.
Review rights
Information about your rights of review under the FOI Act is available at
https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-of-information/reviews-and-complaints/.
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Complaint rights
You may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the Department’s actions
in relation to this decision. Making a complaint about the way the Department has handled an
FOI request is a separate process to seeking review of the Department’s decision. Further
information about how to make a complaint is available at https://www.oaic.gov.au/freedom-
of-information/reviews-and-complaints/make-an-foi-complaint/.
Yours sincerely
Jason Lange
Assistant Secretary
Office of Best Practice Regulation
21 March 2022
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Document Outline
