On receipt of a valid application, the department will acknowledge receipt and will begin the FOI process for document discovery.

The agency has a statutory time frame of 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of an application in which to process the request and provide a response, known as a determination. It may be necessary to extend the timeframe for processing your application under section 14A of the FOI Act.

Depending on the number of documents discovered, the FOI Officer may contact the applicant to discuss reducing the scope of the request and/or the payment of an advance deposit.

Once all documents have been identified they will be reviewed in accordance with the FOI Act and a determination will be prepared and provided to the applicant.

Detailed information regarding processing FOI applications is on the State records website.