FOI decision-making arrangements in Defence
FOI decision-making arrangements in Defence
As ‘principal officer’ of the Department of Defence for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), the Secretary is responsible to the Ministers for the satisfactory operation of the Act within Defence. The Secretary has certain powers and responsibilities under the Act. For example, the Secretary may approve arrangements for decision-making under the Act and may arrange for the conduct of internal reviews, applied for under section 54 of the Act, of decisions made on FOI requests.
The current decision-making arrangements authorised by the Secretary on 18 January 2012 are set out in the Table below:
Table – Schedule of decision making arrangements
| Item | Position | Decision able to be made |
| 1. | All Deputy Secretaries | All decisions |
| 2. | First Assistant Secretary Ministerial Executive Coordination and Communication | All decisions |
| 3. | Assistant Secretary, Freedom of Information and Information Management | All decisions |
| 4. | Special Adviser, Freedom of Information | All decisions |
| 5. | Director, Freedom of Information | All decisions |
| 6. | Accredited FOI decision makers | Decisions relating to refusal or grant of access to documents in accordance with a request received under section 15 of the Act |
| 7. | All Executive Level 1 officers, in the Freedom of Information Directorate | Decisions relating to charges under section 29 of the Act |
Commencement of new arrangements
The decision-making arrangements are scheduled to commence on 1 February 2012. All instruments giving authority to officers of Defence issued under subsection 23(1) of the FOI Act, which are in force prior to the commencement of these arrangements, will remain in force in relation to decisions to be made in respect of requests made under section 15 of the FOI Act that were received prior to the commencement of the new arrangements.