Freedom of Information Amendment Regulation (No. 1) 2001 (Qld)

Queensland Subordinate Legislation 2001 No. 223 Freedom of Information Act 1992 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AMENDMENT REGULATION (No. 1) 2001 TABLE OF PROVISIONS Section Page 1 Short title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2 Commencement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3 Regulation amended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 Replacement of ss 7–11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 7 Liability for charges, Act s 29A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8 Charges for access to document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 Prescribed person for the Act, s 29C(2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 10 Criteria for determining financial hardship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 11 Waiving charge because of financial hardship—departments . . . . . . 4 12 Waiving charge because of financial hardship—other agencies and Ministers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 SCHEDULE CHARGES

s1 2 s4 Freedom of Information Amendment RegulationNo. 223, 2001 (No. 1) 2001 1 Short title This regulation may be cited as the Freedom of Information Amendment Regulation (No. 1) 2001 . 2 Commencement This regulation commences on the day the FreedomofInformationAmendment Act 2001 commences. 3 Regulation amended This regulation amends the Freedom of Information Regulation 1992. 4 Replacement of ss 7–11 Sections 7 to 11— omit, insert— ‘7 Liability for charges, Act s 29A ‘ (1) For section 29A(1) of the Act, the agency or Minister must decide the applicant is liable to pay a charge in relation to an application for access to a document if the agency or Minister is satisfied that— (a) the document does not concern the applicant’s personal affairs; and (b) the total amount of time spent by an officer or officers doing a thing mentioned in the schedule, item 1 or 2, or a combination of the things mentioned in the schedule, items 1 and 2, is likely to be more than 2 hours. ‘ (2) If the agency or Minister decides the applicant is liable to pay a charge in relation to the application for access to the document, the agency or Minister must decide whether the applicant is required to pay a deposit on account of the charge. ‘ (3) If the applicant is required to pay a deposit, the deposit is 25% of the charge assessed, on a preliminary basis, by the agency or the Minister. ‘ (4) In this section— “access” includes provision of access.

s4 3 s4 Freedom of Information Amendment RegulationNo. 223, 2001 (No. 1) 2001 ‘8 Charges for access to document ‘ (1) The schedule sets out charges payable by an applicant for access to a document. ‘ (2) However, a charge is not payable for doing, for a particular application, a thing mentioned in the schedule, item 1 or 2, or a combination of the things mentioned in the schedule, items 1 and 2, if the total amount of time spent by an officer or officers doing the thing or things is 2 hours or less. Examples — 1. Assume an officer spends, for a particular application, 1 hour searching for documents and 30 minutes supervising inspection of the documents. No charge is payable. 2. Assume an officer spends, for a particular application, 2 hours searching for documents, 30 minutes deciding the application for access and 2 hours supervising inspection of the documents. A charge of $90 is payable for the activities. ‘ (3) A charge in relation to an application for access to a document, other than a charge for supervising the inspection of a document, must be paid to the agency or Minister before access is given. ‘ (4) In this section— “access” includes provision of access. ‘9 Prescribed person for the Act, s 29C(2) ‘The chief executive of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet is the prescribed person who decides whether a charge may be waived because an applicant is in financial hardship. ‘10 Criteria for determining financial hardship ‘ (1) This section applies to an individual or non-profit organisation that— (a) makes an application for access to a document; and (b) contends that a charge for access to the document should not be imposed because the individual or organisation is in financial hardship.

s4 4 s4 Freedom of Information Amendment RegulationNo. 223, 2001 (No. 1) 2001 ‘ (2) The criterion prescribed for determining whether an individual is in financial hardship is whether the individual is the holder of a concession card. ‘ (3) If the individual is the holder of a concession card, the individual is taken to be in financial hardship. ‘ (4) The criteria prescribed for determining whether a non-profit organisation is in financial hardship are the following— (a) the nature and size of the organisation’s funding base; Example — The fact that an organisation receives significant government funding may indicate its finances are strictly limited. (b) the amount of the charge for access to the document, assessed on a preliminary basis, compared to the organisation’s financial position, having regard especially to its liquid funds. Example — A charge of up to $100 would normally not be beyond the means of an organisation unless its financial position was extremely limited. ‘ (5) In this section— “access” includes provision of access. “concession card” means a health care card or pensioner concession card under the Social Security Act 1991 (Cwlth) or a pensioner concession card issued by the Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “non-profit organisation” means an organisation that is not carried on for the profit or gain of its individual members. Examples of entities that may be non-profit organisations — Charities, churches, clubs, environment protection societies. ‘11 Waiving charge because of financial hardship—departments ‘ (1) This section applies if the prescribed person mentioned in section 9 must decide whether or not to waive a charge because an applicant is in financial hardship. ‘ (2) The prescribed person must decide to waive the charge if the prescribed person is satisfied the applicant is in financial hardship.

s4 5 s4 Freedom of Information Amendment RegulationNo. 223, 2001 (No. 1) 2001 ‘12 Waiving charge because of financial hardship—other agencies and Ministers ‘ (1) This section applies for an agency, other than a department, or Minister if an applicant contends that a charge should not be imposed because the applicant is in financial hardship. ‘ (2) The agency or Minister must decide to waive the charge if the agency or Minister is satisfied the applicant is in financial hardship.

s4 6 s4 Freedom of Information Amendment RegulationNo. 223, 2001 (No. 1) 2001 ‘SCHEDULE ‘CHARGES section 8(1) 1. Charge for time spent by an agency or Minister in searching for or retrieving a document, or making, or doing things related to making, a decision on an application for access—$5 for each 15 minutes or part of 15 minutes. 2. Charge if an agency or Minister makes an officer available to supervise the inspection of a document—$5 for each 15 minutes or part of 15 minutes. 3. Charge for giving access to a written document by providing a black and white photocopy of the document in A4 size—$0.20 for each page. 4. Charge for form of access to a document under the Act, section 30, other than by inspection or providing a black and white photocopy of the document in A4 size—an amount that is not more than the actual cost incurred by an agency or Minister in giving access to the document.’. ENDNOTES 1. Made by the Governor in Council on 22 November 2001. 2. Notified in the gazette on 23 November 2001. 3. Laid before the Legislative Assembly on . . . 4. The administering agency is the Department of Justice and Attorney-General. © State of Queensland 2001