January 8, 2013
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
– Report A-2012-012 Released
The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ed Ring, has released his Report A-2012-012 under authority of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A summary of the Report is included below.
Commissioner Ring wishes to note that this particular Report represents one of 12 active files currently under review by his Office involving complaints from individuals that a public body has failed to respond within the time limits prescribed by law in the ATIPPA. “This represents a worrying trend, and it is certainly an all-time high for our Office,” commented Commissioner Ring.
“From time to time, my Office has received complaints about a failure on the part of a government department or agency to meet these time limits, but for some reason there seems to be a lot more of this happening now than ever before, and I’m concerned about it. Applicants are being left hanging for months after filing a request that should usually only take 30 days to process, and in some cases no one from the public body is even bothering to pick up the phone and let the applicant know what’s going on with their request. There is a saying in the access to information world that ‘access delayed is access denied’ – sometimes applicants need information within a certain period of time or it is simply no good to them any more. I feel it is necessary for me to publicly call on all public bodies and remind them of their responsibilities under the ATIPPA. If they cannot do their work within the time frames set out in the ATIPPA, they are undermining the very purpose of the law.”
The Commissioner wishes to indicate that he will be monitoring this trend closely in the coming months, and will have more to say on the matter if it continues.
To view the Report in its entirety, please go to www.oipc.nl.ca/accessreports.htm
Report: A-2012-012
Report Date: December 31, 2012
Public Body: Department of Health and Community Services
Summary:
The Applicant requested records from the Department of Health and Community Services comprising what is commonly referred to as the Minister’s “briefing book.” The Applicant’s request was dated March 21, 2012. With the exception of a letter acknowledging receipt of her request and an e-mail stating that the record consisted of approximately 270 pages, the Applicant heard nothing from the Department until she e-mailed the coordinator to check on the status of her request two months later. She was informed that the delay was due to the large number of records and the time necessary to redact the information in accordance with the ATIPPA. The records were finally received by the Applicant in July 2012, more than three months after the request was submitted. The Commissioner found that the delay was a breach of section 11(1) of the ATIPPA and also a breach of section 9 of the ATIPPA (duty to assist). The Commissioner recommended that the Department be mindful of the statutory duty imposed on it by sections 9 and 11 of the ATIPPA. He further recommended that the Department review its policies and procedures for handling access to information requests for the purpose of ensuring that it complies with its duty to assist in section 9 and meets the time limit for responding to access requests under section 11(1) of the ATIPPA.
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Media contact:
Ed Ring
Information and Privacy Commissioner
709-729-6309
2013 01 08 11:55 a.m.