Implementation Report No. 106 - Statistical Reports on the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act

Implementation Report No. 106
April 24, 2007
To: Access to Information and Privacy Coordinators

Annual Statistical Reports

These instructions are intended to assist in the preparation of the annual Statistical Reports on the operation of the Access to Information Act (ATIA) and the Privacy Act (PA).

This applies only to those institutions that were subject to the ATIA and the PA prior to April 1, 2007.

The reports should conform to the following instructions.

Timing

You are asked to prepare and submit your 2006-2007 annual statistical reports to the Treasury Board Secretariat by Friday, May 25, 2007.

Content

The annual statistical reports are intended to provide up-to-date statistics on the operation of the legislation. They enable the government to monitor trends and to respond to enquiries from Members of Parliament, the public, and the media. They also form the statistical portion of institutions' annual reports to Parliament.

Reporting Requirements for 2006-2007 – Access to Information

In addition to the reporting requirements addressed in forms TBS/SCT 350-62 "Report on the Access to Information Act" and TBS/SCT 350-63 "Report on the Privacy Act", institutions are required to report on the following elements:

Part III – Exemptions invoked

• Subsection 13(e)
• Section 14, subsections 14(a) and 14(b)

Part IV – Exclusions cited:

• Subsection 69.1

Considerations

The following are particular aspects that should be considered when preparing reports:

• All fields should be completed using numerical data.
• Statistics must be compiled consistently and according to the definitions attached as Appendix A.
• Statistical categories must be mathematically reconciled and any discrepancies should be explained.
• Statistics submitted to the Treasury Board Secretariat for the fiscal year should be identical to those appearing in the institution's annual reports to Parliament.

Reporting Requirements for 2006-2007 – Privacy

Under the Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Policy, which came into effect on May 2, 2002, Treasury Board Secretariat is to monitor compliance with the PIA Policy through a variety of means. Given the foregoing Policy requirements, institutions are required to report the following information for the 2006-2007 time period:

• The number of PIAs initiated.
• Number of Preliminary Privacy Impact Assessments (PPIAs) initated.
• Number of PIAs forwarded to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC).
• The number of PIA summaries posted on institutional web sites.

If you have nothing to report vis-à-vis each of these activities during the reporting period, please state that explicitly.

This information should be submitted in a narrative form to Colette Dubois via e-mail at Dubois.Colette@tbs-sct.gc.ca

Forms

Statistical reports should be completed using the forms TBS/SCT 350-62 "Report on the Access to Information Act" and TBS/SCT 350-63 "Report on the Privacy Act".

These forms are available under "Access to Information and Privacy" on the Internet site at: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/atip-aiprp/forms/list-eng.asp

Submission

Please submit your reports to Dubois.Colette@tbs-sct.gc.ca

Hard copies of the annual statistical reports should be sent to:

Colette Dubois
Information and Privacy Policy Division
Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
219 Laurier Ave. 14^th floor
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R5

Enquiries

Please direct any questions regarding these instructions to Colette Dubois of the Information and Privacy Policy Division at (613) 957-2455 or by e-mail to Dubois.Colette@tbs-sct.gc.ca.

Donald Lemieux
Executive Director
Information and Privacy Policy Division
Chief Information Officer Branch

Attachments
Appendix A

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Appendix A

Statistical Reports

The following is intended to provide guidance on the data that must be entered in forms TBS/SCT 350-62 "Report on the Access to Information Act" and TBS/SCT 350-63 "Report on the Privacy Act".

Source (Access to Information)

Specify the number of requests received from each of the sources listed on the form. When it is not possible to identify the source, include the request under "Public". The sum of these fields should be equal to the number of requests received shown in part I.

Part I - Requests under the Access to Information Act (ATIA) and the Privacy Act (PA)

Only formal requests filed pursuant to section 6 of the ATIA and section 13 of the PA should be included in the statistical reports.

A formal request must meet the following requirements:

• It is in writing; was submitted using the "Access to Information Request Form" or the "Personal Information Request Form"; or refers to the Act.
• It is made by an individual or corporation entitled to apply, as set out by section 4 of the ATIA, section 12 of the PA and relevant Extension Orders.
• It adequately identifies the individual submitting a request under the Privacy Act.
• It provides sufficient detail to enable an experienced employee of the institution with a reasonable effort to identify the record.
• It has been addressed to or received by the official identified in Info Source as the contact person for the government institution.
• It is accompanied by the application fee required by the Access to Information Act. (The government institution may waive the application fee).

If you receive a request a second time in response to your appeal to the inidivudal for clarification or for payment, don't count the request a second time. In addition, do not include requests received under subsection 8(2) of the PAin the statistical reports.

Received during reporting period

This category includes all formal requests received during the reporting period (April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007).

Outstanding from previous period

These are requests that were still being processed at the end of the previous reporting period.

Completed during reporting period

A request is completed when all actions for its processing have taken place and the file has been closed. In other words, the request is completed when:

• a response has been sent to the requester to advise of the disposition of the request - either a disclosure (full or partial) or denial of access has taken place, or the information requested could not be provided (because the records do not exist, the institution is unable to process, etc); or
• the request has been transferred to another institution; or
• the request was abandoned.

Carried forward

Carried forward refers to requests that were not completed at the end of the reporting period, including cases where physical access has not yet been provided.

Only completed requests should be included in the statistical report in Parts II to X, as described below.

Part II - Disposition of requests completed

Report the disposition of each request under only one of the following categories. If more than one category applies, explain the discrepancy.

All disclosed

All of the information requested was disclosed to the applicant.

Note: This field should include the number of requests for which 1) copies were provided, 2) examing the records, and 3) examining and obtainaining copies of the records.

Disclosed in part

Only a portion of the information requested was disclosed because the remainder was exempt and/or excluded. Cite the specific exemptions invoked in part III of the form and the specific exclusions in part IV, in accordance with the definitions listed below.

Nothing disclosed (excluded)

There was no disclosure because all of the information requested qualified for exclusion under section 68 or section 69 of the ATIA or section 69 or section 70 of the PA. The specific exclusions are to be cited in part IV of the report.

Nothing disclosed (exempt)

There was no disclosure because all of the information requested qualified for exemption. Cite all exemptions invoked in part III of the report.

Transferred

This refers to requests filed under the Access to Information Act that were transferred to another government institution with "greater interest". The receiving institution will account for the request under "Received during reporting period".

Unable to process

This category includes requests that are not accounted for elsewhere, such as requests made under the wrong legislation, requests where there was insufficient information to locate any relevant information, requests for records that are not under the control of the institution, or requests for which no identifiable records exist.

Abandoned by applicant

A request is considered abandoned when the applicant formally withdraws it or when the applicant does not respond to a notice that the request will be closed if not responded to within thirty days.

Treated informally

Requests are treated informally when it has been determined, through consultation with the applicant, that processing of a formal request can be discontinued in favour of providing the information on an unofficial basis, i.e. outside the Access to Information Act. A request treated in this manner is not considered to have been abandoned.

Note: The number of requests treated informally should not be added to the total of requests treated formally in Part VIII-Method of access.

Total

The number reported should be the same as the number reported in "Part I – Completed during reporting period".

Part III - Exemptions invoked

For each request, indicate the exemptions invoked to deny access. For example, if five different exemptions were invoked to refuse the disclosure of records relevant to one request, report one exemption under each of the relevant provisions, for a total of five. If the same exemption was used several times for the same request, report it only once.

Part IV - Exclusions cited

For each request, indicate the exclusions cited, not the number of times a particular exclusion is cited for each request. See the example provided in part III above.

Part V - Completion time

Completion time is to be counted from the day the complete request was received by the institution until the day the processing of the request was completed. The sum of these fields should be equal to the number of completed requests reported in part I.

Note: The sum of the fields should equal the same number reported in "Part I – Completed during reporting period".

Part VI - Extensions

Indicate the number of times an extension was sought during the reporting period, by number of days and the reason for the extension.

Part VII - Translations

The fields are self-explanatory.

Part VIII - Method of access

The sum of the fields should equal the sum of "All disclosed" and "Disclosed in part" in Part II.

Copies given

This refers to the number of requests for which access was provided by giving copies of records to the applicants. Include only cases where copies were the sole method of access. Do not count the number of pages supplied to the applicant.

Examination

Count the number of requests for which access was given by allowing the applicant an opportunity to view the record requested. Include only those cases where no copy was provided.

Copies and examination

Include all cases where information was both examined and copied, in whole or in part.

Note: Do not double-count (i.e. do not duplicate information included in the two previous fields).

Part IX - Fees (Access to Information)

The fields are self-explanatory. Fees are to be calculated in accordance with the Regulations.

Part IX - Corrections and notation (Privacy)

The number of corrections requested should reflect the number of requests for correction completed during the reporting period. The sum of "corrections made" and "notation attached" should equal the number of corrections requested. Requests for correction that have not received a response should be counted in the next reporting period.

Each requested correction requiring a separate decision should be counted. There may be more than one correction within a document (such as incorrect spelling of the last name and educational qualifications) or there may be more than one correction affecting more than one document (e.g. an incorrect birth date appearing in several documents).

Part X - Costs

Account for all costs involved in administering the legislation by indicating the resources spent during the reporting period, including staff salary and other estimated operating and maintenance costs.

Do not attempt to simply calculate the costs of processing individual requests. What should be indicated are the total expenditures associated with those activities that are directly related to the administration of the legislation, such as processing requests, training and consultations. Staff resources should be reported in person-years or a decimal thereof (1 FTE = 220 working days; 1 working day = 7.5 hours). Include only those costs involved in processing the requests completed during the reporting period. Costs of carried forward cases are to be included in the next report. Attention should be paid to separating access and privacy costs and avoiding double counting.