Freedom of Information Procedures
Approved by: Deputy Vice-Chancellor
Date approved: 2 December, 2003
Related policies:
1. Statement of Affairs
1.1. The University is required under the FOI Act to publish an annual Statement of Affairs.
1.2. The University will publish the Statement of Affairs on its corporate website to be available for public inspection.
2. Access to documents
2.1. A member of the public may make a formal request for access to a University document under the Freedom of Information legislation.
2.2. If a document is already available, for example on the University's corporate website, in the University library or a public library, or for purchase, access to the document may be refused.
2.3. Access may be refused to documents or certain material in some documents which are considered by the relevant University officer, pursuant to the FOI Act, to be exempt material for the purpose of protecting essential public interests or the personal or business affairs of others.
2.4. Access to documents may also be refused on the grounds that there would be a substantial and unreasonable workload in identifying, locating and collating the volume of documents to which access was requested.
3. Requests for access to documents
3.1. A request for access to a University document under the FOI Act must be made in writing by letter or on an FOI application form available from the University's FOI coordinator.
3.2. The application should state whether the applicant wishes to inspect or view or listen to the documents or obtain copies of the documents.
3.3. There will be no fee for handling an application for access to documents that concern the personal affairs of the applicant.
3.4. A fee will be charged for handling an application for access to documents that do not concern the personal affairs of the applicant.
3.5. An applicant making a non-personal application will receive a preliminary assessment of charges and may consult with the FOI officer on options for reducing the cost of the application. In limited circumstances, pursuant to the FOI Act, charges may be waived on grounds of financial hardship.
3.6. Hourly charges for time spent searching, retrieving, supervising inspection for documents may be payable, except when the total time spent on an application is 2 hours or less.
4. Response to requests for access to documents
4.1. Within 14 days of receipt of an FOI application the University will acknowledge in writing that the application has been received.
4.2. The FOI Officer or delegate will consult the applicant regarding any difficulties associated with the request.
4.3. Within 45 days of receipt of the application, the University will give the applicant access to the documents or written reasons for refusing access. If consultation with a third party is required the University may take up to 60 days to respond to the request, and if access is refused will advise the applicant that he/she may seek a review of the decision. [In the event that consultation with a third party is required, the views of that third party will be sought regarding whether or not the documents contain matter that the third party considers should be exempt matter.]
4.4. An applicant wishing to access documents concerning his/her own personal affairs must provide acceptable proof of identity, for example photographic identification such as a passport or driver's licence.
4.5. The University will provide reading or viewing or listening facilities as appropriate for inspection of documents where inspection access to the documents is granted.
4.6. The University will provide copies of documents where this is requested and access to the documents is granted.
4.7. A charge may be made for providing photocopies of documents.
4.8. A charge may be made, on a cost recovery basis, for giving access to a document other than by inspection or providing a black and white photocopy, eg. viewing or obtaining a copy of a video, DVD; or copying documents to CD-ROM, disk, etc; or for providing computer printouts.
4.9. If an applicant requests access to documents containing information about his/her own physical or mental health, the relevant University officer pursuant to the FOI Act may elect to provide the documents to a medical practitioner nominated by the applicant and approved by the relevant University officer.
5. Request to amend documents under the FOI Act
5.1. Where available, an authorised individual may amend their own personal affairs information using the University's systems and databases, eg students may amend personal details such as name, address, phone number through SOLAR.
5.2. Otherwise a request to amend personal affairs information in a University document under the FOI Act must be made in writing by letter or on an FOI application form available from University's FOI Coordinator.
5.3. The applicant must identify the information that is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date or misleading; explain what the facts are and provide proof; and detail the amendments he/she would like to be made to the document.
6. Response to requests to amend documents
6.1. The University will notify the applicant of its decision within 30 days of receipt of the application.
6.2. If the University does not agree to making the requested amendments it must give the applicant written reasons for its decision and advise the applicant that he/she may seek a review of the decision.
6.3. If the University agrees to the request, the information will be altered.
6.4. If the University does not agree to the request, the information will not be altered and a notation regarding the reason for not amending the information will be added to the document.
7. Review of University decisions regarding FOI requests
7.1. An applicant for an FOI request may seek a review concerning any of the following:
- a refusal to grant access to a document or to grant access at the time requested
- a refusal to grant access to part of a document
- a decision to give access to a document containing information concerning an applicant's physical or mental health through the applicant's doctor rather than directly to the applicant
- a decision to levy a fee or charge which the applicant thinks is unreasonable
- a refusal to amend personal affairs information that the applicant believes is inaccurate, incomplete, out-of-date, or misleading; or to amend that information as requested
7.2. A third party consulted with respect to an FOI application may request a review concerning:
- a decision to allow another person access to a document which the third party considers would disclose:
- the third party's personal affairs
- the third party's business, professional, commercial or financial affairs
- other information, the release of which would be of substantial concern to the third party
8. Internal review
8.1. A person who is aggrieved by a decision concerning an FOI application may request the University to reconsider its decision.
8.2. A written application for internal review should be lodged within 28 days of notification of the decision and should include a statement of the reasons for believing the decision should be changed.
8.3. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor or an officer delegated by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor will be appointed as Review Officer for the purpose of reviewing a decision regarding a request for access to a document or to amend information under the FOI Act.
8.4. The Review Officer in any particular case must hold a position senior or equal to the position held by the officer who made the original decision on an FOI application. (Where the original decision regarding a request for access to a document, or to amend information, was made by the Vice-Chancellor an internal review cannot be conducted. The person requesting a review of the decision must be advised of this and be given advice that an application may be made to the Information Commissioner for an external review of the decision.)
8.5. The Review Officer will advise the appellant of the outcome of the review within 14 days of receipt of the application to review the decision.
8.6. If the outcome of the review is to maintain the original decision, the appellant must be advised that he/she may seek external review of the decision and be given information on the process for requesting external review.
9. External review
9.1. A person who is aggrieved by the outcome of an internal review or whose original application under the FOI Act was decided by the Vice-Chancellor may make application to the Queensland Information Commissioner for an external review.
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