You have contacted the Freedom of Information Team at the Commonwealth
Department of Education (the department).  If your email relates to a
Freedom of Information (FOI) application made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act), the department will respond as soon
as possible.

This email address is only for applications for access to documents under
the FOI Act.  The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related
enquiries sent to this email address, and accordingly, emails sent to this
email address that are not FOI related will not be responded to or
forwarded.

CRICOS Codes

If you are seeking information relating to the Commonwealth Register of
Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS), information about
Australian education providers offering courses to people studying in
Australia on student visas and the courses offered, including CRICOS
codes, is available at [1]http://cricos.education.gov.au//. Monthly CRICOS
data exports are available at [2]https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos. 
The department is unable to respond to non-FOI related CRICOS enquiries
sent to this email address.

Non-FOI Enquiries

If you have a non-FOI related enquiry for the department, you can contact
the department by using the online enquiry form at
[3]https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co....

Regards,

Freedom of Information Team
Department of Education

Notice:
The information contained in this email message and any attached files may
be confidential information, and may also be the subject of legal
professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, any use,
disclosure or copying of this email is unauthorised. If you received this
email in error, please notify the sender by contacting the department's
switchboard on 1300 566 046 during business hours (8:30am - 5pm Canberra
time) and delete all copies of this transmission together with any
attachments. 

References

Visible links
1. http://cricos.education.gov.au/
2. https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/cricos
3. https://www.education.gov.au/about-us/co...

Dear Watson

I refer to your request, received by the Department of Education
(department) on 6 May 2023, for access under the Freedom of Information
Act 1982 (Cth) (FOI Act) to the following:

…a complete copy of the departments' Freedom of Information (FOI) logs for
the period 2013-2023, including any secondary departments controlled by
the agency.

Terms of request and further information

Reference to ‘FOI logs’

It is not clear what is meant by your reference to the ‘department’s
Freedom of Information (FOI) logs’.  Under the FOI Act, the department is
required to maintain an FOI disclosure log, which is publicly available on
the department’s website. However, it appears you may be seeking access to
a document containing information other than what is required to be
published on the department’s disclosure log. For instance, do you seek
access to a list of valid freedom of information requests received by the
department in the period 2013-2023? If so, the department does not hold a
document containing this information as the department is not required to
maintain such a list under the FOI Act. Noting this, please provide
clarification about the terms of this part of your request by Friday 12
May 2023. As the department does not hold an ‘FOI log’ and is not required
to do so under the FOI Act (other than the disclosure log it is required
to publish), we will treat your request as withdrawn if we do not hear
from you by this time.

If it assists you, all agencies covered by the FOI Act are required to
report a number of FOI related statistics to the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner. These statistics are available on
[1]data.gov.au, and include FOI request numbers, outcomes, timeliness,
charges, practical refusals, exemptions applied, amendment applications,
disclosure log and Information Publication Scheme information. It also
includes staffing for FOI functions and associated non-labour costs. These
statistics may contain the information you are seeking.

‘Secondary departments controlled by the agency’

Your request includes ‘FOI logs for the period 2013-2023’ for ‘any
secondary departments controlled by the agency.’ It is unclear what you
mean by ‘secondary departments controlled by the agency’.  If you are
referring to the department’s portfolio entities, the obligations under
the FOI Act apply to each relevant agency on an individual basis, noting
the FOI Act applies to documents in the possession of an agency.  As such,
the department is not responsible for FOI requests received by its
portfolio entities and does not have visibility over FOI requests received
by them.

On this basis, we will treat this part of your request as withdrawn unless
you advise otherwise by Friday 12 May 2023.

The department’s disclosure log

In your request, you state that you are ‘of the view that your online
disclosure logs do not actively reflect your FOI requests that you have
received in this period.’

Under section 11C of the FOI Act, agencies and ministers must publish
information that has been released in response to every FOI request,
subject to certain exceptions. This publication is known as a ‘disclosure
log.’ The disclosure log requirement does not apply to:

o personal information about any person, if it would be unreasonable to
publish the information (s 11C(1)(a))
o information about the business, commercial, financial or professional
affairs of any person, if publication of that information would be
unreasonable (s 11C(1)(b))
o other information of a kind determined by the Information Commissioner
if publication of that information would be unreasonable (ss 11C(1)(c)
and 11C(2))
o any information if it is not reasonably practicable to publish the
information because of the extent of modifications that would need to
be made to delete information listed in one of the above dot points (s
11C(1)(d)).

Accordingly, the purpose of the disclosure log is to publish information
that has been released in response to an FOI request (unless it is exempt
from publication) and, as such, it does not, and is not intended to,
constitute a list of all FOI requests received by the department. Noting
the above, the department’s disclosure log does not capture, for example,
FOI requests where no documents were released to the applicant, invalid
FOI requests or FOI requests relating to documents that are exempt from
the disclosure log publication requirement.

Further assistance

If you have any questions about your request, please email
[2][email address].

Regards

Freedom of Information Team

Australian Government Department of Education

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