Source: http://www.oaic.gov.au/publications/guidelines/Archived%20guidance/part14_disclosure_log_v1-1_archive.html
Timestamp: 2013-05-21 18:47:19
Document Index: 710567892

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 14', 'art 14', 'art 3', 'art 8', 'art 4', 'art 13']

FOI Guidelines Part 14; Office of the Australian Information Commissioner - OAIC
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Archived Document – This document is no longer in use. Current FOI guidelines are found at: www.oaic.gov.au/publications/guidelines.html#foi_guideline
Version 1.1, October 2011 Introduction.
Disclosure log exceptions.
Making information publicly available.
Publication arrangements.
Design and contents of the disclosure log.
Retaining and archiving information.
Routinely accessed information.
Information Commissioner’s functions and powers.
Legal protection for disclosure log publication.
Annexure A – Draft template disclosure log.
14.1 Agencies and ministers must publish information that has been released in response to each FOI access request, subject to certain exceptions (s 11C of the FOI Act).[1]This publication is known as a ‘disclosure log’.
14.10 As a general guide, it would not be unreasonable to publish in the disclosure log the name of a Commonwealth agency official who is mentioned, in connection with their duties, in a document that was released under the FOI Act.[4] Nor, for the same reason, would it be unreasonable to publish the name of an official who signed a letter to an FOI applicant explaining a decision to release a document. However, it would be open to a decision maker to decide, on a case by case basis, that it is unreasonable to publish in a disclosure log the direct line work telephone numbers of officers under s 11C(1)(a). The actual signature of an officer may also be deleted.
14.11 The Information Commissioner suggests that an agency or minister should include a statement on its disclosure log noting that a document published on the disclosure log may be an edited version of the document originally provided to an applicant because of an exception in s 11C(1).
14.12 The Information Commissioner may relieve an agency or minister from the requirement to publish in a disclosure log certain information to which the agency or minister gives access under the FOI Act, if in the Commissioner’s view it would be unreasonable to publish the information (11C(1)(c) and 11C(2)).
14.13 Section 11C(2) states that the Information Commissioner may by legislative instrument make a determination for the purposes of s 11C(1)(c).
14.14 In deciding whether to make a determination, the Information Commissioner may consider matters such as:
14.15 A determination may apply to information of a general kind that is held by many agencies or ministers, or to information of a specific kind held by a particular agency or minister.
14.16 For further information about applying for a determination, please see Disclosure log determinations policy and procedure, available on the OAIC website.[5]
14.17 Agencies and ministers will in practice make two separate decisions before publishing information in a disclosure log:
14.18 Different requirements apply under the FOI Act to each decision: two should be noted. First, a decision to grant or refuse FOI access must be made by an ‘authorised person’ under s 23. There is no similar requirement applying to s 11C, although ‘authorised persons’ may be well placed to make these kinds of decisions given their familiarity with requests under the FOI Act. Each agency and minister will nevertheless need to establish their own processes for making decisions under s 11C.
14.19 Secondly, while consultation requirements apply before a decision can be made under s 11A to release documents affecting Commonwealth-State relations, documents affecting Norfolk Island intergovernmental relations, business documents and documents affecting personal privacy (ss 26A, 26AA, 27, 27A),there is no similar consultation requirement applying to s 11C, even though s 11C recognises that publication of personal, business and other information may be unreasonable.
14.20 The Information Commissioner encourages agencies and ministers to provide advance notice to FOI applicants and third parties that information released under the FOI Act may later be published in a disclosure log (subject to certain exceptions). This advance notice could be given to FOI applicants in the notice under s 15(5) that the person’s FOI request has been received, and to affected third parties during a consultation process under ss 26A, 26AA, 27 or 27A (see Part 3 of these Guidelines). The applicant or third party may choose to express a view on this issue and to identify personal or business information that in their view would be unreasonable to publish. However, it is important that applicants and third parties are also made aware of the pro-disclosure policy of the FOI Act embodied in s 11C.
14.22 The date on which an FOI applicant is given access may be later than the date of the decision to grant access (see Part 8 of these Guidelines). Before giving access, an agency or minister can require that a charge be paid (s 11A(1)(b), reg 11(1)), and must also be satisfied that all opportunities for review by third parties have run out and that the decision to grant access still stands or was confirmed (ss 26A(4), 26AA(4), 27(7) and 27A(6)).
14.23 The date on which an FOI applicant is given access may vary according to the method by which access is given. For example, if a document was sent by email to an FOI applicant it is probable that it was received on the same day. If a document is instead sent by post it is presumed (unless the contrary is known) to have been received on the day it would be delivered in the ordinary course of post (Acts Interpretation Act 1901 s 29).
14.24 It is open to an agency or minister to publish information on a disclosure log earlier than the period of ten days stipulated in s 11C(6). Independently of the FOI Act an agency or minister may (subject to applicable secrecy provisions) publish information at any time and by any method. The FOI Act does not erode that discretion. It is therefore open to an agency or minister to publish information that is to be provided to an FOI applicant at the same time that access is provided. This is consistent with the principle of equal public access rather than exclusive individual access, which is inherent in the disclosure log mechanism and the IPS.
14.25 On the other hand, the Commissioner is aware that FOI works more smoothly and effectively if there is cooperation and trust between agencies and FOI applicants. This is important when the need arises to discuss the scope of a request or to agree upon an extension of time to process a request. There is a risk that a dispute about the date of disclosure on a particular occasion will flow over and create an unhealthy climate for efficient FOI processing in the future.
14.26 Agencies and ministers are encouraged to consider this issue and to decide upon an appropriate approach to publishing information in their disclosure log. It is advisable that each agency and minister adopts a guiding principle or practice as to when accessed information will be published under s 11C, so that applicants know of that practice in advance and that they will be treated similarly to other applicants. Further, if an agency or minister decides to provide access to the FOI applicant as at the same time it publishes information in its disclosure log, the agency or minister should consider reducing or waiving any charges it may otherwise have imposed under s 29 (see Part 4 of these Guidelines).
14.27 The FOI Act does not prescribe the form of a disclosure log. In the Information Commissioner’s view, it is desirable that agencies and ministers adopt a common approach, so that disclosure logs have a consistent appearance across government and can be easily understood by the community.
14.28 When designing or updating a disclosure log, agencies and ministers are encouraged to refer to the disclosure log template annexed to this document to provide a consistent appearance across government (see Annexure A – Draft template disclosure log). However, some agencies may require different headings or modifications to the headings in annexure A, depending on the nature of FOI requests the agency handles and its IT systems and information platforms.
14.29 The features of a disclosure log are discussed below, but it essentially has three parts:
14.30 Information that is made available to the public under s 11C should, as a general rule, be released in the same form that it was released to the FOI applicant under s 11A. For example, if the FOI applicant was given a copy of an agency document, the same document should be available under s 11C, whether by download from a website or in some other manner. Similarly, if the document provided to an FOI applicant contained deletions, the same copy of the document should be available under s 11C.
14.31 A departure from that principle may be necessary for practical reasons. For example, if the FOI applicant inspected a document or viewed a video it may be necessary to make a different publication arrangement in the disclosure log. As a general rule, however, it is expected that the same information provided to an FOI applicant should be made publicly available under s 11C, rather than a summary or paraphrase of the document given to the FOI applicant.
14.32 As a matter of better practice, the Information Commissioner encourages agencies and ministers to supplement the information they are required to make available under s 11C. It will advance the purpose of the disclosure log and the objects of the FOI Act if the following additional information is provided:
14.33 Those details will assist the public to understand the information made available by an agency or minister in its disclosure log. For example, the topic or theme that unites a collection of papers may not be readily apparent unless the terms of the FOI request and the scope of the FOI disclosure is explained.
14.34 A practical design issue that arises is whether additional information of the kind described above should be listed in the disclosure log, or provided as an attachment or as a preface to the information made available under the disclosure log. The template disclosure log at annexure A contains a column for summarising the relevant FOI request, so that all relevant information is provided in a single table. However, this will increase the size of the table, and agencies may prefer to include this information elsewhere on their FOI/disclosure log webpage.
14.35 It is also open to an agency or minister to supplement the disclosure log in other ways. For example, an agency may wish to point out that a document released under the disclosure log has been revised and published by the agency in a different form, or that the information provides only a partial picture of an issue. Any supplementation of this kind should be distinct from the information published in the disclosure log. The disclosure log should provide an accurate historical record of information released by an agency or minister under the FOI Act.
14.36 Agencies and ministers should have a clear statement on their websites, on their home page and/or on their disclosure log, about the extent to which the public can reuse material in which they hold copyright.
14.37 In deciding on the appropriate licensing, agencies and ministers should consider the Statement of Intellectual Property Principles for Australian Government Agencies at www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Copyright and proposed Guidelines on Licensing Public Sector Information, which the Attorney-General’s Department will be publishing on its website.
14.38 While most of the information an agency or minister publishes in its disclosure log will have been created by government, there may be documents in the agency’s or minister’s possession where a third party (such as the author or publisher of the material) owns the copyright.
14.39 No action lies against the Commonwealth, a minister, an agency or an officer of any agency for breach of copyright, amongst other things, if the minister or an agency officer publishes a document in good faith, in the belief that publication is required or permitted under the disclosure log provisions (s 90(1)(a)). However, this provision does not constitute authorisation or approval for reuse of the material, including by members of the public.
14.40 Where a third party owns copyright in material an agency or minister publishes as part of its disclosure log, the agency or minister should include a clear statement on their website advising the public that they may need to seek permission from the copyright owner in order to reuse the material. A statement such as the following could be used:
14.41 If an agency or minister knows the details of third party ownership of copyright in material it has published in its disclosure log, the agency or minister should, with the copyright owner’s consent, provide contact details on its website, in order to help members of the public.
14.42 Information listed in the disclosure log should remain on an agency’s or minister’s website, even if the attached information has been removed from the website. It is likely that the log will grow in length over time and provide an historical as well as a current record of information released by an agency or minister under the FOI Act. Where an agency ceases to exist or is restructured, or a minister ceases to hold office, an adjustment may be necessary in accordance with change of government procedures applying at that time.
14.43 Although an agency or minister must maintain a disclosure log the FOI Act does not specifically require information attached or referred to in the log to be made available indefinitely. In the course of routine maintenance or updating of a website an agency may decide to withdraw some s 11C content and make the information available in another form, for example, on request. Similarly, an agency may decide that it is inappropriate to publish particular information on its website following a change of government or a ministerial or portfolio reshuffle. Conversely, an agency may find that information listed in the disclosure log that is available only on request should instead be published on the agency website because of frequent requests for that information. Before agencies destroy or transfer documents or information in the course of removing content from their website, they must seek approval from the National Archives of Australia (Archives Act 1983 s 24). Approval is granted through the issuing of general records authorities, agency-specific records authorities and normal administrative practice.
14.44 Routine monitoring by agencies and ministers of disclosure log activity will assist them in deciding the best measures to adopt in furtherance of the FOI Act objective of facilitating public access to government information.
14.45 A disclosure log should indicate if information published on an agency’s or minister’s website is earmarked for removal at a future date. As a guide, the Information Commissioner recommends that information could be removed after 12 months unless the information has enduring public value. Details should be provided if information will thereafter be available in some other manner. Equally, if the information is no longer available from the agency (for example, it has been archived or destroyed), this should be noted by annotation to the disclosure log.
14.46 Agencies have obligations under the IPS which are similar to the requirement to publish a disclosure log. Under the IPS, agencies must publish information in documents to which the agency routinely gives access in response to FOI access requests (s 8(2)(g)), except:
14.47 Publication of information in a disclosure log will, in many instances, satisfy this IPS publication requirement. The IPS should nevertheless contain a clear link to the disclosure log and an explanation that it contains information to which the agency has routinely given access in response to FOI requests.
14.48 On the other hand, an agency may decide that it is preferable, in complying with s 8(2)(g), for the IPS to contain either an extract from the disclosure log or a separate summary of information that is routinely released by the agency in response to FOI requests. Which ever approach is adopted, agencies must observe the additional requirement in s 8(2)(g) that the IPS entry identify items of information that are ‘routinely’ disclosed by the agency in response to FOI requests.
14.49 For more information on s 8(2)(g) and the IPS generally see Part 13 of these Guidelines.
14.50 The disclosure log is intended to facilitate public access to government information where there has been a demonstrated FOI interest in that information. To fulfil this objective it is important that the disclosure log and attached documents are easy to find on an agency’s or minister’s website.
14.51 More generally, agencies and ministers are encouraged to ensure that the disclosure log (including attached documents) is:
14.52 The Information Commissioner encourages agencies and ministers to integrate these features into the design and ongoing administration of the disclosure log, and discusses six examples of how to integrate some of these features below.
14.53 First, to ensure that the disclosure log is easily discoverable, it is recommended that agencies and ministers use an easily identifiable disclosure log icon, which links from an IPS or FOI webpage through to the disclosure log. Information about how to use the OAIC developed icon is available in the OAIC’s Guidance for agency websites.[7]
14.54 Second, agencies and ministers should clearly but briefly explain what the disclosure log is, to help make the information understandable – for example ‘publicly available information, released after an FOI access request’.
14.55 Third, agencies and ministers are encouraged to build appropriate search facilities (or where possible, utilise existing search facilities) to enable information in the log to be searched – for example by reference to particular words, categories or subject matter.
14.56 Fourth, it is recommended that agencies and ministers use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) technology to automatically distribute relevant news and announcements over the internet, and deliver content directly to subscribers.[8] An agency’s disclosure log RSS feed could be structured around the same content used on the website version of their disclosure log. Use of RSS content has the additional benefit of being highly machine-readable. If used in concert with appropriate open licences, RSS is a potentially useful technology for making agency disclosure log content available for reuse in other services and applications, such as public-made applications which track agency FOI disclosures.
14.57 Fifth, to enhance discoverability of information published in the disclosure log, agencies and ministers should adopt a controlled vocabulary, especially when titling documents. Agencies and ministers may have regard to the Australian Government Interactive Functions Thesaurus (AGIFT) for this purpose.[9]
14.58 Sixth, it will be important for agencies and ministers to generate appropriate metadata. This will improve the visibility and accessibility of their web services and linked data applications. Agencies and ministers should have regard to AGLS Meta Data Standard and the Australian Government Implementation Manual for AGLS Metadata.[10]
14.61 The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) advises that agencies and, in some circumstances, ministers,[11]in publishing information on their websites are required to conform to WCAG 2.0.[12] A staged compliance model requires agencies (and in some circumstances, ministers) to conform to Level A by December 2012 and Level AA by December 2014.[13]
14.62 The Australian Human Rights Commission has published World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes (Version 4.0) which support the obligation to conform to WCAG 2.0.[14]
14.63 The intention of s 11C is that information published or made available under a disclosure log should be freely accessible by the community (s 11C(4)).An agency may charge to provide information in another form if the charge is to reimburse the agency for a specific reproduction or incidental cost in providing the information in another way (s 11C(4)(b)).
14.64 In determining whether or not to charge members of the public for information made available in another format, agencies and ministers should take account of the ‘lowest reasonable cost’ objective in the FOI Act (s 3(4)).
14.65 Details of any charges that an agency or minister will apply must be published on their website (s 11C(5)).[15]This should include the categories of information to which a charge may apply, the scale of the charge and an explanation for the charge.
14.66 The Information Commissioner has a role in monitoring the administration of disclosure logs by agencies and ministers.
14.67 The Commissioner’s function of investigating complaints about agency FOI administration extends to complaints about an agency’s disclosure log (s 70). The Commissioner can also undertake an own motion investigation into an agency’s FOI actions (s 69(2)). These complaint and investigation functions do not extend to the actions of ministers. Nor can disclosure log actions of an agency or minister be the subject of a review by the Information Commissioner under Part VII of the Act.
14.68 To facilitate Information Commissioner oversight of agency disclosure log actions, agencies are encouraged to keep an internal register which lists, in respect of every FOI request:
14.69 The Information Commissioner is also required to prepare an annual report on the operations of his office during the year (Australian Information Commissioner Act 2010 s 30). The Commissioner intends to include information on the administration of the disclosure log by agencies and ministers.
14.70 Section 93 of the FOI Act requires agencies and ministers to provide the Information Commissioner with information required by the Commissioner to prepare an annual report. Agencies and ministers will be required to provide the following information as part of their quarterly and annual statistical returns:
the number of FOI requests resolved during that period that are not listed in the disclosure log, and the reason(s) these were not listed.
14.71 Agencies and ministers may also capture and provide information about the number of unique visitors and page views for webpages that are part of their disclosure log.[16]
The [agency/Minister]is required by the Freedom of Information Act 1982 s 11C to publish a disclosure log on its website. The disclosure log lists information which has been released in response to an FOI access request. This requirement has applied since 1 May 2011.
There may be documents in the disclosure log that are currently not available in HTML format. If you are unable to read the format provided please contact [insert FOI contact details]. We will try to meet all reasonable requests for an alternative format of the document in a timely manner and at the lowest reasonable cost to you.
Draft template disclosure log
(1)Agencies and ministers should note the date that the FOI applicant was given access to a document under s 11A.
(2)Agencies and ministers should provide a short summary of the FOI access request.
(3)Agencies and ministers should provide a short summary of information provided under s 11A.
(4)Agencies and minsters may note here, for example, that information is no longer available or has been revised by the agency or minister.
[1] See www.comlaw.gov.au/.