FOI Amendment Passed

Changes to the Victorian FOI Act will commence on 1 September 2017

The Victorian Parliament made changes to the FOI Act which will come into operation on 1 September 2017. Those changes will affect every agency covered by the FOI Act in Victoria.

On 9 May 2017 the Legislative Council finally passed the Freedom of Information Amendment (Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner) Bill 2017 after some small changes to the original form of the Bill.

One of the changes had been raised by our firm through a submission by the Law Institute of Victoria. It ensures that deemed refusal decisions arising from failure by agencies to make decisions on access requests within the statutory time frame remain reviewable by the VCAT - the original form of the Bill meant such decisions were not going to be reviewable by any body.

Between now and 1 September 2017 FOI Solutions will be conducting training sessions focusing on the practical impact the changes will have on agencies when handling requests for access. Details of those sessions will be available on our website soon. In the meantime, if you wish to express interest in attending or to be notified when the sessions are publicised, please contact Roisin in our office.

Based on previous interest in this topic and the impact these amendments will have on all agencies, we expect training sessions to be filled very quickly so don't miss out on this unique opportunity.