Documents relating to violations of law and breaches of contract at Serco run detention facilities
Dear Department of Immigration and Citizenship,
I am writing to request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) documents concerning violations of law related to the operation of Serco run detention facilities. I am also requesting documents related to breaches of contract by Serco at these detention facilities.
Yours faithfully,
Ben B
UNCLASSIFIED
Our references: FA 13/08/01040; ADF2013/27523
To – Mr Ben B
via email - [FOI #362 email]
Dear Mr B
I am writing to you in response to your email of 24 August 2013,
purportedly under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and asking
that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship provide you with the
following:
‘…documents concerning violations of law related to the operation of Serco
run detention facilities. I am also requesting documents related to
breaches of contract by Serco at these detention facilities.’
The purpose of this email is to advise you that I currently consider the
request to be invalid under the Act. I will explain my reasons in full
below.
Requirements of the FOI Act
The requirements for a valid FOI request are set out in s.15(2) of the
Act, which provides that:
The request must:
(a) be in writing; and
(aa) state that the request is an application for the purposes of this
Act; and
(b) provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister,
to identify it; and
(c) give details of how notices under this Act may be sent to the
applicant (for example, by providing an electronic address to which
notices may be sent by electronic communication).
Issue regarding your request
I am not satisfied that the scope of the request meets the requirement of
s.15(2)(b). The reason is that terms, ‘concerning violations’, ‘law’, and
‘breaches of contract’ are very broad terms. They do not provide such
information concerning the documents you require as is reasonably
necessary to enable a Departmental officer to identify the documents in
scope.
I note that there are various arms of the ‘law’ that may apply to Serco
operations, such as contract, administrative, tort, criminal, industrial
relations and workplace health and safety law. You have not identified
which area of the ‘law’ you are referring to. Similarly, the phrase
‘concerning violations’ is open to an equally broad range of
interpretations which will depend on the area of law that has been
‘violated’. Finally, the phrase ‘documents relating to breaches of
contract by Serco’ is too vague and broad for the Department to commence
processing this arm of the request. The term ‘breach of contract’ would
cover all breaches of any and all clauses in the contract. In addition,
this element would cover documents from internal emails through to
Ministerial briefs. It would assist a responsible officer to identify
relevant documents if you could specify a specific clause of the contract
and a specific type of document.
Way forward
At this point, I have not accepted this as a valid request. Please provide
a revised scope by close of business Friday 30 August 2013. If I have not
received a response by that time, I will close this request as invalid.
Yours sincerely
Angela O'Neil
Assistant Director
FOI & Privacy Policy
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Telephone: (02) 6264 1382
Email: [1][email address]
-----Original Message-----
From: Ben B [mailto:[FOI #362 email]]
Sent: Saturday, 24 August 2013 8:16 PM
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Documents relating to violations
of law and breaches of contract at Serco run detention facilities
Dear Department of Immigration and Citizenship,
I am writing to request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) documents concerning violations of law related to the
operation of Serco run detention facilities. I am also requesting
documents related to breaches of contract by Serco at these
detention facilities.
Yours faithfully,
Ben B
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[2][FOI #362 email]
Is [3][email address] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Department of Immigration and Citizenship? If so,
please contact us using this form:
[4]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/contact
Write your response as plain text. Only send PDF documents as a
last resort. Government guidelines make it clear that PDF is not an
acceptable format for you to use in the delivery of government
information.
[5]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[6]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your
web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
UNCLASSIFIED
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Important Notice: If you have received this email by mistake, please
advise
the sender and delete the message and attachments immediately. This email,
including attachments, may contain confidential, sensitive, legally
privileged
and/or copyright information. Any review, retransmission, dissemination
or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the
intended recipient is prohibited. DIAC respects your privacy and has
obligations under the Privacy Act 1988. The official departmental privacy
policy can be viewed on the department's website at www.immi.gov.au. See:
http://www.immi.gov.au/functional/privac...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[FOI #362 email]
3. mailto:[email address]
4. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/contact
5. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
6. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
UNCLASSIFIED
Our references: FA 13/08/01040; ADF2013/27523
To – Mr Ben B
via email - [1][FOI #362 email]
Dear Mr B
I am writing to advise you that I have closed your request as invalid
under s.15(2)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth). This
provision requires the applicant to provide such information as to enable
a responsible officer of the agency to identify the requested document.
I am satisfied that the scope of your request does not allow a responsible
officer of the Department to identify the documents you are seeking.
Yours sincerely
Angela O'Neil
Assistant Director
FOI & Privacy Policy
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Telephone: (02) 6264 1382
Email: [2][email address]
UNCLASSIFIED
From: Angela O'NEIL On Behalf Of FOI
Sent: Wednesday, 28 August 2013 4:25 PM
To: Ben B
Cc: Linda ROSSITER
Subject: TRIM: Re - FA 13/08/01040 - Documents relating to violations of
law and breaches of contract at Serco run detention facilities
[SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
UNCLASSIFIED
Our references: FA 13/08/01040; ADF2013/27523
To – Mr Ben B
via email - [3][FOI #362 email]
Dear Mr B
I am writing to you in response to your email of 24 August 2013,
purportedly under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) and asking
that the Department of Immigration and Citizenship provide you with the
following:
‘…documents concerning violations of law related to the operation of Serco
run detention facilities. I am also requesting documents related to
breaches of contract by Serco at these detention facilities.’
The purpose of this email is to advise you that I currently consider the
request to be invalid under the Act. I will explain my reasons in full
below.
Requirements of the FOI Act
The requirements for a valid FOI request are set out in s.15(2) of the
Act, which provides that:
The request must:
(a) be in writing; and
(aa) state that the request is an application for the purposes of this
Act; and
(b) provide such information concerning the document as is reasonably
necessary to enable a responsible officer of the agency, or the Minister,
to identify it; and
(c) give details of how notices under this Act may be sent to the
applicant (for example, by providing an electronic address to which
notices may be sent by electronic communication).
Issue regarding your request
I am not satisfied that the scope of the request meets the requirement of
s.15(2)(b). The reason is that terms, ‘concerning violations’, ‘law’, and
‘breaches of contract’ are very broad terms. They do not provide such
information concerning the documents you require as is reasonably
necessary to enable a Departmental officer to identify the documents in
scope.
I note that there are various arms of the ‘law’ that may apply to Serco
operations, such as contract, administrative, tort, criminal, industrial
relations and workplace health and safety law. You have not identified
which area of the ‘law’ you are referring to. Similarly, the phrase
‘concerning violations’ is open to an equally broad range of
interpretations which will depend on the area of law that has been
‘violated’. Finally, the phrase ‘documents relating to breaches of
contract by Serco’ is too vague and broad for the Department to commence
processing this arm of the request. The term ‘breach of contract’ would
cover all breaches of any and all clauses in the contract. In addition,
this element would cover documents from internal emails through to
Ministerial briefs. It would assist a responsible officer to identify
relevant documents if you could specify a specific clause of the contract
and a specific type of document.
Way forward
At this point, I have not accepted this as a valid request. Please provide
a revised scope by close of business Friday 30 August 2013. If I have not
received a response by that time, I will close this request as invalid.
Yours sincerely
Angela O'Neil
Assistant Director
FOI & Privacy Policy
Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Telephone: (02) 6264 1382
Email: [4][email address]
-----Original Message-----
From: Ben B [[5]mailto:[FOI #362 email]]
Sent: Saturday, 24 August 2013 8:16 PM
To: FOI
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Documents relating to violations
of law and breaches of contract at Serco run detention facilities
Dear Department of Immigration and Citizenship,
I am writing to request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982
(Cth) documents concerning violations of law related to the
operation of Serco run detention facilities. I am also requesting
documents related to breaches of contract by Serco at these
detention facilities.
Yours faithfully,
Ben B
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[6][FOI #362 email]
Is [7][email address] the wrong address for Freedom of Information
requests to Department of Immigration and Citizenship? If so,
please contact us using this form:
[8]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/contact
Write your response as plain text. Only send PDF documents as a
last resort. Government guidelines make it clear that PDF is not an
acceptable format for you to use in the delivery of government
information.
[9]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be
published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[10]http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
If you find this service useful as an FOI officer, please ask your
web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
UNCLASSIFIED
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Important Notice: If you have received this email by mistake, please
advise
the sender and delete the message and attachments immediately. This email,
including attachments, may contain confidential, sensitive, legally
privileged
and/or copyright information. Any review, retransmission, dissemination
or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the
intended recipient is prohibited. DIAC respects your privacy and has
obligations under the Privacy Act 1988. The official departmental privacy
policy can be viewed on the department's website at www.immi.gov.au. See:
http://www.immi.gov.au/functional/privac...
---------------------------------------------------------------------
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #362 email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[FOI #362 email]
4. mailto:[email address]
5. mailto:[FOI #362 email]
6. mailto:[FOI #362 email]
7. mailto:[email address]
8. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/contact
9. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...
10. http://www.righttoknow.org.au/help/offic...