FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
REQUESTS — CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
824. Hon COLIN TINCKNELL to the Leader of the House
representing the Premier:
(1) With regard
to freedom of information requests, in what general instances do agencies
determine that information should remain classified and not be released to an
FOI applicant?
(2) Who makes the decision on the
information that is to remain classified?
(3) Of the 43 per
cent of FOI applications that receive edited information, what percentage of
applicants are satisfied with the level of information provided?
(4) I note the
$30 application fee charged to obtain information under FOI. How much revenue
did this equate to in the last financial year?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The
Department of the Premier and Cabinet treats each FOI application on its
merits. Any exemption is strictly based on the applicable exemptions as
outlined in the glossary, schedule 1 to the Freedom of Information Act 1992.
There are 15 listed exemptions, and I seek leave to have these incorporated
into Hansard.
Leave granted.
The following material was incorporated —
1. Cabinet
and Executive Council, deliberations etc. of
2. Inter-governmental
relations, matter that could damage etc.
3. Personal
information
4. Trade
secrets, commercial and business information
4A. Information
given to Treasurer etc. under Bank of Western Australia Act 1995.
5. Law
enforcement, public safety and property security, matter prejudicial etc. to.
6. Deliberative
processes of Government etc., matter revealing
7. Legal
professional privilege, matter subject to
8. Confidential
communications
9. State's
economy, matter adversely affecting management of etc.
10. State's
financial or property affairs, matter adversely affecting etc.
11. Effective
operation of agencies, matter impairing etc.
12. Contempt
of Parliament or court, matter that would be
13. Adoption
or artificial conception information
14. Information
protected by certain statutory provisions
15. Precious metal transactions, information as to
(2) Section 100
of the FOI act clearly outlines who can make decisions regarding information
that is to remain exempt. It states —
100. Who in agency makes its decisions
(1) Decisions made under this Act by an agency are
to be made by —
(a) the principal officer of the agency; or
(b) an officer of the agency directed by the
principal officer for that purpose, either generally or in a particular case.
(2) Subsection (1)(b) does not apply if the
agency is a Minister.
(3) As was the case in the previous
government, this information is not recorded.
(4) This
information will be publicly available in the Information Commissioner's
2017–18 annual report, under agency statistics.