Number of liability and compensation claims received
Verity Pane made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Veterans' Affairs
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
I seek a document listing the number of liability and compensation claims DVA has *received* for the last full ten financial years, as well as the current partial financial year, listed by Act [MRCA, VEA (excluding NLHC claims), and SRCA/DRCA] of entitlement that applies, with Non-Liability Health Care (NLHC) claims listed in their own row/column.
DVA has collected these statistics over the time frame requested and stores them in computers ordinary available to DVA. DVA is therefore able to produce such a document under s 17 (example of s 17 document produced by DVA is available here https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/6...)
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
***Important message***
Thank you for your email.
Where your email is a request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act (1982) or administrative access, this email is
notification that your request has been received by the department and
will be processed.
For all other matters we will respond to your email shortly.
Sincerely,
Information Access Unit
Client and Rehabilitation Branch
Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Dear Ms Pane,
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (the department) has received your
request for access to information under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (FOI Act). I note you have requested access to the following:
I seek a document listing the number of liability and compensation claims
DVA has *received* for the last full ten financial years, as well as the
current partial financial year, listed by Act [MRCA, VEA (excluding NLHC
claims), and SRCA/DRCA] of entitlement that applies, with Non-Liability
Health Care (NLHC) claims listed in their own row/column.
DVA has collected these statistics over the time frame requested and
stores them in computers ordinary available to DVA. DVA is therefore able
to produce such a document under s 17 (example of s 17 document produced
by DVA is available here
[1]https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/6...)
Your request was received by the department on 26 March 2022 and the 30
day statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day
after that date. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to
consult third parties or for other reasons permitted under the FOI Act. We
will advise you if this happens.
Charges
The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your
request and the amount of any such charge as soon as practicable. No
charge is payable for providing a person with their own personal
information.
Your address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address that we can send
notices to. You have advised your electronic address is
[2][FOI #8653 email] . Unless you tell us
otherwise, we will send all notices and correspondence to this address.
Disclosure log
Information released under the FOI Act may be published on a disclosure
log on our website, subject to certain exceptions. These exceptions
include where publication of personal, business, professional or
commercial information would be unreasonable.
Exclusion of employee details
To the extent the department has documents in its possession that fall
within the scope of your request, we intend to treat the surnames,
signatures, position titles and direct contact details of Commonwealth
employees and contractors, including clinical staff working for Open Arms
– Veterans & Families Counselling as irrelevant in accordance with section
22 of the FOI Act. If you agree to the department treating these details
as irrelevant, please advise by 5 April 2022.
Further assistance
If you have any questions about your request, please email
[3][DVA request email]
Regards
Aaron (position number 62214261)
Information Access Officer
Information Access Unit
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
t 1800 838 372 | e [4][email address] |
[5]www.dva.gov.au
p GPO Box 9998, Canberra ACT 2601
[6]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0
References
Visible links
1. https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/6...
2. mailto:[FOI #8653 email]
3. mailto:[DVA request email]
4. mailto:[email address]
5. http://www.dva.gov.au/
Dear INFORMATION.ACCESS,
To the extent the department has documents in its possession that fall within the scope of this FOI request, you will treat the names and position titles of Commonwealth employees as in scope of this request made under the FOI Act. No agreement to exclude is given and the FOI guidelines pointedly refer agencies to not presume consent to such s 22 exemptions as the Department consistently does in contravention of those guidelines.
Verity Pane
Dear Ms Pane,
Please find attached decision letter and release pack for LEX 48748.
Please contact me on the below details if you have any questions.
Suzanne
Position Number: 62210948
Information Access Officer
Information Access Unit
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
e [1][email address]
t 1800 838 372
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Department of Veterans' Affairs,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Veterans' Affairs's handling of my FOI request 'Number of liability and compensation claims received'.
DVA has invalidly varied the scope of the FOI made, claiming that some fields of the table produced under s 17 are outside scope 'as the definition of ‘document’ provided at section 4 of the FOI Act, does not extend to material which is publicly available'. This is an untenable position as this would only apply to a request for a discrete document that had been published (for example, if the FOI had been for copy of the 2020-21 Annual Report, DVA could decide to give administrative access to the published report), not a data in table produced in a s 17 because no such discrete document as applied for existed.
As such this exclusion of scope made is invalid.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/n...
Yours faithfully,
Verity Pane
Dear Verity Pane
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (the department) has received your
request for access to information under the Freedom of Information Act
1982 (FOI Act). I note you have requested access to the following:
“I am writing to request an internal review of Department of Veterans'
Affairs's handling of my FOI request 'Number of liability and compensation
claims received'.
DVA has invalidly varied the scope of the FOI made, claiming that some
fields of the table produced under s 17 are outside scope 'as the
definition of ‘document’ provided at section 4 of the FOI Act, does not
extend to material which is publicly available'. This is an untenable
position as this would only apply to a request for a discrete document
that had been published (for example, if the FOI had been for copy of the
2020-21 Annual Report, DVA could decide to give administrative access to
the published report), not a data in table produced in a s 17 because no
such discrete document as applied for existed.
As such this exclusion of scope made is invalid.”.
Your request was received by the department on 3 May 2022 and the 30 day
statutory period for processing your request commenced from the day after
that date. The period of 30 days may be extended if we need to consult
third parties or for other reasons permitted under the FOI Act. We will
advise you if this happens.
Charges
The department will advise you if a charge is payable to process your
request and the amount of any such charge as soon as practicable. No
charge is payable for providing a person with their own personal
information.
Your address
The FOI Act requires that you provide us with an address that we can send
notices to. You have advised your electronic address is
[FOI #8653 email]. Unless you tell us
otherwise, we will send all notices and correspondence to this address.
Disclosure log
Information released under the FOI Act may be published on a disclosure
log on our website, subject to certain exceptions. These exceptions
include where publication of personal, business, professional or
commercial information would be unreasonable.
Further assistance
If you have any questions about your request, please email
[1][DVA request email]
Yours sincerely
Derek (Position Number 62255248)
Information Access Officer
Information Access Unit
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
[2][DVA request email]
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[DVA request email]
2. mailto:[DVA request email]
Good afternoon Ms Pane,
Please find attached our decision regarding LEX 49375.
Kind regards,
Sara (Position Number 62214764)
Information Access Officer
Information Access Unit
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
e [1][email address]
[2]cid:image001.png@01D0027A.1DAB84F0
DVA is committed to suporting veterans and their families.
We all deserve to be treated with courtesy and respect.
We ask that you treat us the same way.
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
Dear Ms Pane,
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs (Department) has been notified of an
application made by you for Information Commissioner Review of the
attached decision (MR22/01002_LEX 49375IR_LEX 48748). The Department has
considered your application and decided to release the requested document
to you in full, on an administrative basis.
The Department is committed to developing proactive practices towards the
release of information, and has recently published the ‘[1]DVA
Administrative Release Guidelines’, which may also be of interest to you.
Given that you have now been provided with full access to the document
that is the subject of the above review, we invite you to withdrawn your
IC Review MR22/01002. We will be providing the Information Commissioner
with a copy of this correspondence.
Kind regards
Ramona | Assistant Director
Position Number: 62336362
Information Access Unit I Client Access and Rehabilitation Branch
Client Engagement and Support Services Division
Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Tel 1800 838 372 (1800 VETERAN)
e [2][email address]
[3]www.dva.gov.au
[4]cid:image002.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[5]cid:image003.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[6]cid:image004.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590[7]cid:image005.png@01D7B6E3.69D49590
[8]cid:image009.jpg@01D8EDC8.743A0070
[9]cid:image010.jpg@01D8EDC8.743A0070
References
Visible links
1. https://www.dva.gov.au/sites/default/fil...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. http://www.dva.gov.au/
4. https://www.facebook.com/DVAAus
5. https://twitter.com/DVAAus
6. https://au.linkedin.com/company/australi...
7. https://www.youtube.com/DVATVAus
Verity Pane left an annotation ()
IC review