Agencies are to give effect to the FOI Act in a way that:
- assists the public to obtain access to documents;
- allows access to documents to be obtained promptly and at the lowest reasonable cost; and
- assists the public to ensure that personal information contained in documents is accurate, complete, up-to-date and not misleading.
Learn more about Section 4 of the FOI Act.
It is important to act in a way which furthers the objects of the FOI Act. FOI officers should always bear the following concepts in mind:
- Can the request be dealt with outside the FOI process? If so, this may lead to a better outcome for all parties.
- Engage in early and meaningful dialogue with the applicant to clarify the scope of the application. This may help identify the documents the applicant really wants and stop the agency having to undertake unnecessary work.
- An agency may release an exempt document if there is no harm in doing so. Section 23(1) states only that an agency may refuse access to exempt information.
- The notice of decision is an important part of the FOI process and is crucial in ensuring that an applicant is afforded justice (sections 13(1)(b) and 30).
Currently, the OIC has a significant backlog of external review matters and the number of new applications for external review received is increasing.
Accordingly, to manage the volume of matters, increase timeliness of outcomes for more applicants and agencies and reduce backlog, priority is being given to certain matters as described in the OIC’s new Queue Management Policy.
The public interest
Show moreIf the agency is required to consider the public interest, this usually means that information that would otherwise be exempt will not be exempt if its disclosure would, on balance, be in the public interest.
So what does the term ‘public interest’ mean?
It is not defined in the FOI Act. It can be a complex legal concept.
Consideration of the public interest under the FOI Act is not primarily concerned with the personal interests of the particular access applicant or with public curiosity. The public interest is a matter benefitting the public at large rather than a particular individual or group of individuals. The question is whether, on balance, giving access to the information would be of some benefit to the public generally.
Deciding whether or not disclosing information would, on balance, be in the public interest involves identifying and weighing the relevant competing public interests for and against disclosure of the information, and deciding where the balance lies.
TIP: In relation to information of a personal nature, the Information Commissioner has consistently found there is a strong public interest in upholding the privacy of individuals. If you are seeking personal information relating to another person, you must show it is in the public interest for that personal information about another individual to be disclosed to you and the public more generally (section 102).
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