Annual Report: 2003-2004

Status report on access requests in a deemed-refusal situation

l. BACKGROUND

For several years, a number of institutions were subject to review because of evidence of chronic difficult in meeting response deadlines. In his 1996-97 Annual Report to Parliament, the former information commissioner reported that delays in responding to access requests had reached crisis proportions.

As a result, the Information Commissioner has adopted the following standard as being the best measure of a department’s compliance with response deadlines: percentage of requests received which end as deemed refusals. Every department reviewed has been assessed against the following grading standard:

This Status Report, for the period April 1 to November 30, 2003, reviews the progress of PCO to comply with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act, including the status of the recommendations made in the Status Report issued in January 2003.

2. COMPLIANCE HISTORY

The Privy Council Office (PCO) was one of the first departments to achieve a grade of "A" in its efforts to comply with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act. The purpose of this follow-up report is to determine if PCO was able to maintain this achievement.

In the 1999 Report Card, PCO received a red alert grade of "F" with a 38.9% new request to deemed-refusal ratio for requests received from April 1 to November 30, 1998. For the complete 1998-1999 fiscal year, the ratio was 47.1%.

In the following year’s review, it was reported that, for requests received from April 1 to November 30, 1999, the ratio improved remarkably to 3.6% and a grade of "A".

The achievement was not sustained for the 2001-2002 reporting period. During the fiscal year 2001-2002, the new request to deemed-refusal ratio increased to 28.4%, a grade of "F".

However, for last year’s report for the period from April 1 to November 30, 2002, the ratio improved to 17.5%--a grade of "D", constituting below standard performance with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act. This ratio slipping to a 21.9% ratio, a grade of "F", for the full 2002-2003 fiscal year.

3. CURRENT STATUS AND FURTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

The statistical report for PCO reflects a substantial improvement in the institution’s record. For the period April 1 to November 30, 2003, PCO achieved a 3.8% ratio for the new requests to deemed refusals, resulting in a grade of "A". That constitutes ideal compliance with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act.

While this gives an accurate assessment of the deemed-refusal ratio to requests received within the above-noted reporting period, it does not take into consideration those requests carried over from the previous year, nor the number of requests already in a deemed-refusal status on April 1. In future reports, these figures will be taken into consideration; however, for this report, the grading resulting from that inclusion is provided for information purposes only. In this instance, the results for April 1 to November 30, 2003, would be 12.8%, resulting in a grade of "C".

The Coordinator ascribed much of the improvement to two specific areas: an increase in resources to 18 PYs from the previous 12-16 permanent positions, and the introduction over the past year of a more comprehensive weekly report. With the added resources, although the number of requests has increased, 266 versus 240 for the same timeframe, an improved support staff to analyst ratio has taken much of the administrative burden away from analysts, allowing for more productivity in regards to processing those requests. The report also allows senior management to be aware of the workload and any subsequent compliance issues.

Although it was a recommendation last year, no formalized improvement plan has been developed. However, more descriptive reporting tools developed in concert with Privisoft have enabled ATIPflow to be enhanced, allowing the managers to be more aware of ongoing activities during the process rather than after a deemed-refusal status has been reached.

The Coordinator’s view remains that senior management approval of release packages does not constitute a delay in the process. Her view is that the time allocated to OPIs in the access process is being exceeded and constitutes a major cause for access requests in a deemed-refusal situation. Partly to blame for this is the high turnover of personnel in the OPI areas. However, to further assist OPIs, the comprehensive user manual Access to Information in the Privy Council Office is available online as well as in hard copy. While statistics are not available to quantify any specific improvement, it is felt that this assisted in allowing PCO to achieve the level of compliance that they are now experiencing.

4. COMPLIANCE OBJECTIVES

PCO is encouraged to maintain ideal compliance with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act. PCO is encouraged to set an objective of 5% or better for the new request to deemed-refusal ratio for 2004-2005.

4.1 ATI Improvement Plan

An overall ATI Improvement Plan is an essential component of a strategy to be in compliance with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act. A plan should identify the specific sources of the delays and include targets, tasks, deliverables, milestones and responsibilities to achieve ideal compliance. Uncoordinated efforts to reduce the number of requests in a deemed-refusal situation are likely not as effective as an integrated group of measures established as a result of an analysis of the situation.

4.2 OPI and the Access Process

PCO maintains that the access process of three stages of OPI involvement has not had a significant impact on delayed responses to requests. Nevertheless, this three-step process involving the OPIs would appear to be a burdensome feature of the PCO access process. During the final review, the OPI authorizes the disclosure of information and mandatory exemptions.

5. STATUS OF 2003 RECOMMENDATIONS

In January 2003, recommendations were made to PCO on measures to strive to attain ideal compliance with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act. The action taken on each recommendation is described below, following the text of the recommendation.

Action taken: PCO attained a 3.8% ration of deemed-refusals to requests received for an ideal performance with the time requirements of the Access to Information Act.

Action taken: An enhanced reporting process has been developed allowing managers and analysts to better manage ongoing request activity and keep deemed refusals to a minimum.

Action taken: PCO maintains a three-stage access process with OPIs. However, the Coordinator feels that, with better training and available online reference material, the secondary reviews are not considered to be a burden to the overall process of meeting the timely requirements of response.

Action taken: A more comprehensive report is now provided weekly to senior management allowing them to become more aware of workload and compliance issues.

EXCERPT FROM DEPUTY MINISTER’S RESPONSE TO STATUS REPORT

"You have noted that the PCO has improved its performance to a grade of A for the period of April 1st to November 30, 2003.

We are gratified by this performance record particularly in light of the high workload experienced throughout PCO this past fiscal year. Moreover, our ATIP office received 457 requests this past year as contrasted with 384 the year before, an increase of 19%.

I believe this is an indication of PCO’s commitment to Access to Information, and the quality work of our staff in the Access to Information and Privacy Office, as well as all of our staff who deal with access requests across the department.

Please be assured that we will make every effort to achieve a similar record in the current fiscal year."