A central processing office would be the Government’s best bet in handling public requests for information, according to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The group argued in its annual report for 2024 that a centralised unit would “streamline processes and improve the quality of Pati decisions”.

The report, released on Friday, added that some aspects of the Pati Amendment Act 2024 lessened people’s access to information and were added without consultation of the ICO.

The report said: “The commissioner continues to emphasise the importance of public and stakeholder consultation as the appropriate democratic tool to give the people a voice on the laws that affect them.”

The amendments were adopted last November after several years of consultation between the Government and the ICO.

It was done to balance the Pati Act with the Personal Information Protection Act 2016, which ensures people’s personal information is handled responsibly.

New provisions were put in place that determined a public authority could spend as much as 16 hours reviewing records related to a Pati request.

After 16 hours, the public authority will charge requesters $60 per hour to complete a Pati request response. The request will be denied if the fee is not paid.

The rationale for these enforcements, according to the Government, was that public authorities were overwhelmed trying to answer these requests.

The report insisted that this amendment had been made without consulting the ICO.

It added that charges for processing requests can be found in other countries, but are “more balanced”.

The report said that the Pati Act amendment lacked “important and well-established safeguards found in other jurisdictions,” including exceptions for requests of national importance or addressing an inability to pay the charge.

The ICO’s 2024 report showed that, of the 174 authorities who reported receiving requests between 2021 and 2024, 155 received five or less requests a year.

During this same time, 15 public authorities reported receiving between six and 12 requests a year, while four reported receiving 12 or more requests.

The report said that a centralised unit that was well-versed in Pati law could alleviate “significant burdens on public authority”.

It added that the Government applied a similar model to other departments, such as the Accountant-General’s Department, which assisted with government accounting when called upon.

The report suggested that this could also assist in the ICO’s caseload, which dealt with 367 cases between 2021 and 2024.

The ICO report said that, of those cases, 170 had been brought forward from the previous year, while 197 of them were fresh reports from the same year.

The report further showed that, of the 187 public authorities, 43 of them — about 23 per cent — received Pati requests in 2024.

Half of these requests to information were wholly rejected, with the most frequently cited reason being that the records did not exist or could not be found.

In the same year, a fifth of Pati requests were granted with full access to information, while 19 per cent were granted partial access.

At the time of recording, nine Pati requests were pending and the status of two were unknown.

Also in 2024, 134 public authorities, or 72 per cent, did not receive Pati requests.

Seven public authorities, or 3 per cent, did not have Pati request information available and three of those authorities, which make up 2 per cent, are under review.

The ICO report insisted that the Pati Act “significantly strengthens the public’s access to information” by requiring authorities to make some types of information automatically public.

The Pati Act further requires public authorities to make “every reasonable effort” to respond to requests completely, accurately and in a timely manner.

A common problem for applicants, according to the ICO Report, was that the authorities have not responded to the request in its entirety and that there were more records available.

The Information Commissioner’s decisions in 2024 required public authorities in 21 out of 39 requests — 54 per cent — to take certain action by a deadline set by the ICO.

Of those 21 requests, public authorities complied on time on four occasions and out of time on 14 of them. Compliance was outstanding for one order.

The ICO report said that, for the first time, the group notified applicants when enforcement of the ICO on public authorities’ obligations escalated to a letter before legal action.

It added that, although the commissioner has never had to start a legal proceeding to enforce a decision, letters have been sent multiple times to spur public authorities into action.

• To read the report in full, see Related Media

Download PDF File

ICO 2024 Annual Report.pdf