Making a Freedom of Information Application to the Department of Justice and Attorney General

PLEASE NOTE!

The Freedom of Information Act 1989 will be replaced by the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act) early in 2010. The Office of the Information Commissioner is being established as part of the new right to information regime under the GIPA Act which will replace the current FOI regime.

If you are looking for a document or information read, below to find out how to make a Freedom of Information application to the Deparment of Justice and Attorney General. Please also the Department's Freedom of Information Act Guidelines.

Step 1 - What information do I need and who has it?
Decide what information, document or policy you need. If you are not sure what the document is called or what information you may need, contact the Attorney General’s Department Freedom of Information Officer who may be able to help you work out the information you need and which government agency might have it.

IMPORTANT PLEASE NOTE:
The Attorney General's Department cannot process Freedom of Information applications for material which is held by other Government departments or agencies. For example, we cannot give you access to documents held by the Department of Health or a Local Council. Nor can we provide access to documents which are held by the Attorney General's ministerial office. These applications should be made to the agency which holds the documents.

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Step 2 - Contact the agency concerned and ask for the information
Generally, it is best to ask the agency for the information directly before making a formal Freedom of Information request. Agencies will normally provide copies of non-personal and non-confidential information at your request. This will save you paying the application fee.

If the information can’t be provided to you informally, you may need to make a formal Freedom of Information application.

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Step 3 - Make a Freedom of Information Application
Write your request on a Freedom of Information application form, enclose the application fee and post or deliver it to the Department or agency.

If you do put in a formal application, but the request is straight forward and will not take too much time or resources to address, the agency can decide to deal with the application informally and not charge you the application fee. The application fee is applied to recover some of the cost of a staff member looking up the information you need, collating, copying and sending it to you. If your request is simple and straight forward, and the information requested is not contentious, the agency will try to assist you in getting it without making a formal application.

For example, if you are asking for access to your own letters to the Department, these can generally be made available to you without a Freedom of Information application if there is not too many of them and they are readily accessible. If there are a lot of letters, and you only want some of them, you can always make an appointment to come in and look at your file and select the ones you want.

If you have applied for a large number of documents, the agency may ask you to pay for photocopying them or decide to charge you the application fee to recover the reasonable costs of addressing your application.

It is important to remember that the Department and its agencies deal with millions of documents and correspondence each year. Many documents are placed in the Government Archive after a period of time to save space. In many cases, the agency will first have to request that information or a file is sent from the Government Archive so it sometimes takes a little while to reply to your request.

Applicants under the Freedom of Information Act 1989 have certain rights of appeal and review if they are not satisfied with the outcome of their application. These rights and avenues of appeal are set out in the Department's Notice of Determination.