Office of the Board of Studies – Government Information (Public Access)
How do I make a Government Information (Public Access) application to the Office of the Board of Studies?
- Government Information (Public Access) application form (PDF)
- Published June 2010
Introduction
The Office of the Board of Studies is committed to:
- open and accountable public service
- ensuring the community understands the Office’s role and functions
- providing opportunities for community participation in the development of departmental policy and programs.
The Office strongly supports the provision of the broadest possible access to departmental information and policies to ensure that the community fully understands the Office’s role and can better contribute to our activities.
Privacy
The Office of the Board of Studies not only has responsibility for the management of a broad range of government policies and programs, it is also responsible for dealing with personal information provided by thousands of people across New South Wales who have presented for the School Certificate tests and Higher School Certificate examinations.
The Office takes seriously its responsibility to provide convenient access to information held by the Office, subject to the protection of individual citizens’ rights to the privacy and confidentiality of their personal information.
If you are looking for a document or information, read below to find out how to make a Government Information (Public Access) application to the Office of the Board of Studies.
Step 1: What information do I need and who has it?
Decide what information, document or policy you need. If you are not sure what the document is called or what information you may need, contact the Office of the Board of Studies Government Information (Public Access) Officer who may be able to help you work out the information you need and which government agency might have it.
Please note: The Office of the Board of Studies cannot process Government Information (Public Access) applications for material which is held by other government departments or agencies. For example, we cannot give you access to documents held by the Department of Health or a local council. These applications should be made to the agency which holds the documents.
Step 2: Contact the agency concerned and ask for the information
Generally, it is best to ask the agency for the information directly before making a formal Government Information (Public Access) request. Agencies will normally provide copies of non-personal and non-confidential information at your request. This will save you paying the application fee.
If the information can’t be provided to you informally, you may need to make a formal Government Information (Public Access) application.
Step 3: Make a Government Information (Public Access) application
Write your request on a Government Information (Public Access) application form, enclose the application fee, and post or deliver it to the Office.
If you do put in a formal application but the request is straightforward and will not take too much time or too many resources to address, the agency can decide to deal with the application informally and not charge you the application fee. The fee is applied to recover some of the cost of a staff member seeking out the information you need, collating, copying and sending it to you. If your request is simple and straightforward and the information requested is not contentious, the agency will try to assist you in getting it without making a formal application.
For example, if you are asking for access to your own letters to the Office, these can generally be made available to you without a Government Information (Public Access) application if there are not too many of them and they are readily accessible. If there are a lot of letters, and you only want some of them, you are welcome to make an appointment to come in and look at your file and select the ones you want.
If you have applied for a large number of documents, the agency may ask you to pay for photocopying them or decide to charge you the application fee to recover the reasonable costs of addressing your application.
It is important to remember that the Office deals with very many documents and correspondence each year. Many documents are placed in the Government Archive after a period of time to save space. In many cases, the Office will first have to request that the information or file be sent from the Government Archive; this means that it sometimes takes us a little while to reply to your request.
For any other government agency, contact their Government Information (Public Access) Officer who can help you with your queries.