Section 54 of the Freedom of Information Act 1991 (FOI Act) requires the Minister responsible for administering the Act (the Minister) to prepare an annual report no later than 31October each year.

Section 54AA requires all agencies subject to the FOI Act to ‘furnish to the Minister’ information to allow the annual report to be completed. The Minister must give notice in the Government Gazette of the information that must be provided and how the information is to be reported.

The FOI Annual Reporting Guideline will assist State Government agencies, Local Government councils and Universities to meet their obligations under the FOI Act by:

  • describing agency responsibilities in relation to their annual reporting requirements,
  • outlining the set of data required to populate the FOI Annual Report
  • advising how and when to capture each element of the dataset, and
  • describing calculation methods for capturing any complex elements.

State Records will request information from agencies for inclusion in the annual report.  It is the responsibility of each agency to ensure the information they provide is accurate.

FOI Application Data Collation Spreadsheet

State Records has developed the FOI Application Data Collation Spreadsheet to help capture and summarise FOI application activity and to help fulfill the reporting requirements described in the FOI Annual Reporting Guideline.

FOI Annual Report Submission Form

Agencies, councils and universities must submit their FOI activity data via the FOI Annual Reporting Data Submission at the end of each financial year.

Nominations for staff to be assigned to your agency’s submission have been sought by State Records.  If you are unsure if your agency has nominated staff, please speak with your manager or contact us.

Page last updated: 28 September 2022