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Appendix 5 - Freedom of information requests

INTRODUCTION

Section 8 of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 requires the ABS to provide detail on the structure of the ABS, and how members of the public can gain access to information held by the ABS.

Detail on the structure of the ABS can be found in chapter 2 of the 2005–06 ABS Annual Report.

INFORMATION HELD BY THE ABS

CATEGORIES OF DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE ABS ARE:

Documents open to public access upon payment of a fee

The ABS does not hold any of these types of documents.

Documents available for purchase or customarily available free of charge

The ABS has a wide range of statistical publications available free of charge on its web site, through ABS libraries and major public libraries. Charged publications can be purchased from ABS bookshops in some state offices and the ABS web site.

OTHER DOCUMENTS IN THE POSSESSION OF THE ABS ARE:

Government and Parliament

The ABS holds policy-related documents, ministerial briefings, ministerial correspondence, replies to parliamentary questions, and tabling documents.

Meetings and conferences

The ABS holds agenda papers, submissions, and records of proceedings of internal and external conferences, management meetings and workshops.

Statistical and statistical service projects

The ABS holds research, development and evaluation papers, records of consultations with suppliers and users of data, statistical classifications, lists of businesses, maps, data collection, processing and publication manuals and instructions and mailing lists.

Administration and management

The ABS holds work program and planning documents, finance, staff and establishment papers and manuals, personnel files, recruitment files, selection and promotion of staff, staff development and training papers, office services documents and tenders.

Privacy

The ABS holds a record of the extent and nature of ABS holdings of personal information, as contained in the Personal Information Digest published by the Privacy Commissioner.

General

The ABS holds correspondence, papers, etc. filed by subject, manuals on more general subjects, reviews and administrative circulars.

Note that a significant part of ABS information holdings is information collected under the Census and Statistics Act 1905. This information is exempt from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 1982.

ABS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACTIVITIES

Matters relating to the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 within the ABS are the responsibility of the Office of the Statistician in Central Office. Authority for decision making under this Act has been delegated to the Deputy Australian Statisticians, the First Assistant Statistician, Corporate Services Division, and the Assistant Statistician, Office of the Statistician.

Office of the Statistician staff attend meetings of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Practitioners' Forum run by the Australian Government Solicitor's Office.

The following table provides details of FOI activities during the years 2001–02 to 2005–06 inclusive. Two requests were made to the ABS under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 during 2005–06.

		2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05	2005–06
Requests received for
	Statistical information	-	-	1	-	2
	Personal papers	-	2	-	-	-
	Administrative documents	-	-	-	3	-
	Total	-	2	1	3	2
Decisions made
	Access granted in full	-	-	1	3	1
	Access granted in part	-	2	-	-	1
	Request transferred to another agency	-	-	-	-	-
	Request withdrawn	-	-	-	-	-
	Access refused	-	-	-	-	-
	Documents not in existence	-	-	-	-	-
	Total	-	2	1	3	2
Decisions outstanding at end of year		-	-	-	-	-
Review of decisions by principal officer		-	-	-	-
Appeals to Administrative Appeals Tribunal		-	-	-	-	-