Professor McMillan explained privacy complaints, FOI complaints and Information Commissioner reviews have been increasing by at least 10 per cent a year. When the proposals for FOI reform and the creation of the office were going through the parliament it was projected that the office would have 100 staff. Staff numbers are currently around 64 and will probably stabilise in the next financial year at around 70.
It takes roughly seven months to just designate someone in the office to undertake an FOI review and a lesser but still substantial period to allocate FOI and privacy complaints. Once allocated, time to completion varies but the longest unresolved cases are now over two years old.
While the backlog is reasonably steady at the moment, there are just over 400 Information Commissioner reviews that are unresolved.
This is not what was promised or expected.
Dr Hawke's review report must be tabled within 15 sitting days of 31 April and is awaited with interest.
The Hansard extract follows:
Senator RHIANNON:
I apologise if there has been confusion about
that. I do have a question of the Office of the Australian Information
Commissioner. Has any additional funding been provided to the office in
response to the continuing budget shortfall?
Prof. McMillan
: The answer is
no. The departmental appropriations for 2013-14 is, as you indicated,
roughly $10.6 million. It includes a deduction for the efficiency
dividend applied to all agencies.
Senator RHIANNON:
Could you specify how this impacts on the work of the OAIC.
Prof. McMillan
: We publish
quarterly statistics on the web now that indicate the work being
received by the office and also our completion rates. We have been very
public about this. The statistics on the web indicate that we are
encountering significant workflow issues. The work coming into the
office—for example, privacy complaints, FOI complaints and Information
Commissioner reviews—has been increasing by at least 10 per cent a year
and though we have made a determined effort over the last nine months to
reduce the backlogs there are still significant workflow backlogs. In
particular, it takes roughly seven months to allocate a new Information
Commissioner review application to an officer and a lesser period, but
still a substantial period, to allocate FOI and privacy complaints. We
have also written to government expressing concern that we have
additional work to implement the substantial privacy reforms that
commence on 12 March next year. We have written, drawing attention to
the extra workload that that is imposing.
In summary, we are proceeding as
best, as gamely and in as focused a way as we can. We are achieving
results, but we are not able to complete all the work in the time frames
that we would like.
Senator RHIANNON:
Is the backlog becoming bigger and is it taking longer to get the work done?
Prof. McMillan
: In terms of
total numbers the backlog is reasonably steady at the moment. For
example, we have on hand just over 400 Information Commissioner reviews
that are unresolved. As a result of a determined effort we made towards
the end of last year and allocating staff specifically to complaint
handling Information Commissioner reviews we managed to increase the
completion rate of individual staff officers quite considerably. If you
look at the web you will see there is a substantial outflow of work, but
there is still a large backlog that is not reducing in number, even
though we are roughly completing the same work that is coming into the
office, but we are not able to reduce the existing backlog.
Senator RHIANNON:
Did I hear you correctly, that you said it takes on average about seven months to—
Prof. McMillan
: To allocate. If
we receive an application for Information Commissioner review it can
take roughly seven months to allocate that to an officer for work. We do
an initial review of the application, for example, to see whether it is
in jurisdiction and to do initial acknowledgement letters, but to do
substantive work on a review will take at least seven months.
Senator RHIANNON:
Once it is allocated how long on average does it then take to complete it?
Prof. McMillan
: It varies. It
depends very much on the individual case, but the longest unresolved
cases in office are now over two years old—that is, we have some
applications for Information Commissioner review lodged over two years
ago. All these statistics are on the web.
Senator RHIANNON:
What would be your ideal practice? What do you think would be good practice?
Prof. McMillan
: In the budget
papers there are projected completion rates. The objective is to
complete 80 per cent of Information Commissioner reviews within 12
months of receipt and, equally, to complete 80 per cent of privacy and
FOI complaints within 12 months of receipt. We are not currently meeting
that objective, but that is what we will be focused on in the
forthcoming year.
Senator RHIANNON:
How many additional staff would you need to achieve that objective?
Prof. McMillan
: We have not
calculated an exact figure. We have obviously had discussions around
budget. The Privacy Commissioner wrote to the Attorney-General drawing
attention to the workload pressures imposed by the privacy reforms, but
we have been well aware of government announcements and government
measures, including the efficiency dividend, so we have not done
scenario modelling. When the proposals for FOI reform and the creation
of the office were going through the parliament it was projected that
the office would have 100 staff under the departmental appropriation.
That is a figure we have been comfortable to accept as a projected
number. The numbers go up and down, but they will probably stabilise.
They are currently down, under departmental appropriation, to around 64;
it will probably stabilise in the next financial year at around 70.
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