Information Publication Scheme plan

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Introduction

Under the Freedom of Information Amendment (Reform) Act 2010 all Commonwealth agencies subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), including the Department of Human Services, are required to have an Information Publication Scheme (IPS) plan in place by 1 May 2011. This plan has been prepared for the purposes of Part II of the FOI Act and in particular section 8 of that Act.

The department delivers a wide range of services to support people through the different stages of their lives and includes: Centrelink, Child Support, Medicare, CRS Australia programs and Australian Hearing. This IPS plan has been developed to cover the whole of the Department of Human Services.

Purpose

The purpose of the Department of Human Services IPS plan (IPS Plan) is to outline how the department will comply with section 8(1) of the FOI Act. It provides, through agency-driven disclosures, a framework to enable easy access to information for customers.

The department IPS plan will set out the proposed arrangements as to how and when the department will, over time, make available operational material and other optional information in a manner that is easy to obtain electronically, and for customers without internet access.

Objectives

The objectives of this plan are to:

  • to assist customers of the department's services to understand decision-making processes
  • to promote input into service delivery reform (including on-line uptake) and help customers to undertake co-design of services which are easy, high quality and works for them
  • in line with the objects of the FOI Act generally, the making available of certain subsets of highly aggregated information in due course will support better engagement by citizens in policy making and analysis and national discussion of matters of public interest
  • manage the IPS information holdings
  • having identified all information required to be published, ensure it is accessible to the public under s 8(2)
  • continue to identify and publish optional information, that the public may wish to access under s 8 (4)
  • review and ensure on a regular basis information published under the IPS is accurate, up to date and complete under s 8B
  • ensure information published under the IPS is easily found, understandable and re-usable
  • ensure satisfactory conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 2) (WCAG 2.0)
  • monitor the number of customer requests, timeliness of responses and customer feedback to measure the success of the department's IPS contribution
  • abide by relevant Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's guidelines, and monitor and adopt other Commonwealth agencies better practices as appropriate
  • in line with the objects of the FOI Act generally the making available of decision-making documents will promote and hold the department accountable for decisions made relating to benefits and services provided to customers.

Implementing the Information Publication Scheme

Establishing an Information Publication Scheme

(a) FOI reform accountability

Freedom of Information reform implementation forms part of the accountability of the National Manager, Ombudsman, Privacy and Freedom of Information Branch in the Legal Services Division of the department. The National Manager, Ombudsman, Privacy and Freedom of Information Branch reports to the Chief Counsel, Legal Services Division and through the Deputy Secretary , Executive Support and Legal to the Department of Human Services Secretary.

(b) Information Asset Management Framework

Publishing FOI related information on the department's website will be managed using the agency's Web Content Management System (WCMS). The WCMS will provide a capability to assist in the coordination, tracking and approval of all published FOI materials.

In addition, a new IPS Information Register (or external facing repository/ 'catalogue' of FOI material) will be established in due course, which will include appropriate industry standards for managing information.

Disclosure Log

A data base or Disclosure Log for non-personal FOI decision documents was developed in July 2010.

The Disclosure Log is currently hosted on the department's website and is available through a link using the recommended Disclosure Log icon on each program's website.

Relevant FOI decisions from 1 July 2010 can be accessed in pdf format. Customers unable to access pdf files will be able to request hard copies of any FOI decision from the FOI reform team either:

FOI decision documents on the Disclosure Log can be sorted by date, agency, FOI exemptions and key words (which briefly describe what the FOI request was about).

Operational Information

Following a department-wide stocktake, it is estimated that approximately 60,000 documents fall within scope of the IPS (40,000 of these are within Centrelink). A large proportion of the documents have multiple pages, and a relatively small number have more than 100 pages.

It is estimated that 20 per cent of the department's documents will have some form of FOI exemptions that will need to be applied.

Accessibility

The department will arrange for IPS documents, which are not available on the department's website, to be made available in hard copy upon request either:

Charges

The department may charge a person for accessing IPS documents which have not yet been published online:

  • at the lowest reasonable cost; and/or
  • to reimburse specific reproduction costs or other specific incidental costs under s 8D (4) of the FOI Act.

Charges will be consistent with charges in the Freedom of Information (Charges) Regulation 1982 which generally apply to access requests under Part III of the FOI Act.

In line with current department policy, customers may request that charges be waived on the grounds of public interest or hardship.

Information architecture

Publishing operational information

Due to the significant number of documents that fall within the requirement of the IPS, a staged process for publishing documents over a period of years will be implemented, including:

  • During July 2011, documents requested multiple times will be placed on the department's corporate webpage, under a 'operational information' page.
  • Customer requests until January 2012 will be sent to customers in hard copy or by email, and will not be available on the department's website.
  • An automated repository of information accessible by customers is proposed to be rolled-out in January 2012, which will facilitate electronic access to documents as they become available on the department's website, noting that customers will still be able to obtain hard copies or email copies in the interim.
  • A review of customer requests in June 2012 to consider improved management of requests.
  • A review of the IPS plan in December 2012.

From May 2011 documents not requiring FOI exemption will be pro-actively reviewed and prepared for publishing on the department's IPS repository when it becomes available from January 2012.

The Disclosure Log is available on the department's Corporate webpage.

During July 2011 a register of documents captured by the IPS for the department will be published on the department's corporate webpage. External users will be able to search and then select a document from the list and request it either:

Any documents that can be immediately made available will be sent to the user or downloaded by the user (where available).

During July 2011, up to 50 frequently requested documents will be available for downloading as pdf documents under a 'operational information' page under the IPS logo.

From January 2012 documents available for publication will be added to the department's IPS repository for automatic download by the requestor and any future customers.

All documents will be regularly reviewed to ensure the information is up-to-date and complete. Those documents with exemptions blacked-out will also be reviewed periodically to ensure exemptions should be maintained.

Information published on other Government websites 

The department provides publications such as the Annual Report and several of its regular newsletters to the Commonwealth Library Deposit and Free Issue Scheme.

The department is in the process of implementing changes to this library scheme to include a wider range of products such as pamphlets and brochures. These will be available by 1 May 2011.

Information published in audio or audio-visual format is made available to the National Sound and Film Archive (NSFA) on a case by case basis. The department advise NSFA of material produced in these mediums, NSFA request any required material. There are only two newsletters currently available in audio-visual format.

The department have not been active participants or partners in the PANDORA web archive program. Publically available information or documents hosted on agency websites may be captured by the PANDORA Digital Archiving System (PANDAS) without our direct involvement. The department does not have access to particulars about archived information other than in the general lists of Commonwealth government documents at http://pandora.nla.gov.au/partner/NLA/subject/67

Centrelink and Medicare have office locations and opening hours available on www.data.gov.au. Medicare also indicates if the office has wheelchair access.

The department is currently investigating what other data, for example statistical information, should be published on the www.data.gov.au website.

The department reports tenders and purchases valued at over $10,000, and publishes the Annual Procurement Plan on www.tenders.gov.au as required under the Australian Government's procurement guidelines.

Information required to be published

The department proposes to have a page for the IPS on the Human Services website with a link to each program, Centrelink, Medicare , Child Support, CRS Australia and Australian Hearing.

All mandatory information, other than the IPS plan and agency operational material, that must be published under s 8 (2) (b) to s 8 (2) (i) of FOI Act, is currently available through various documents already published in each of the different program websites.

To enable customers to easily find this information, each individual program website will list all mandatory information requirements with the relevant link to the current repository of the program's information.

From 1 July 2011, the department proposes to migrate this information to the department's website and have links from the program to one location where they will have one view of this information.

Optional information

Published statistical information

Statistical information currently available:

  • The department's website provides limited Centrelink electorate data from 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009. This data includes the numbers of customers on relevant payment type in each Australian electorate. The website also provides a link to the Child Support website and the Medicare website.
  • The Child Support website provides electorate data until June 2009 which gives information regarding the paying parent, the receiving parent, the number of children involved, both in Australia and internationally.
  • The Medicare website holds a wide range of statistics on the Medicare Benefit Scheme (MBS), Provider percentile charts, MBS electorate data, Medicare Resources by MBS items and demographics. The reports can be sorted by categories.
  • The Centrelink website provides a link to the department's website for Centrelink data. It also provides some high level fraud statistics and links to other government agency websites that provide statistical information.
  • The Australian Hearing website provides some information regarding the causes and rate of hearing loss in the Australian population.

There is no immediate plan to add to the statistical information available. This will be reconsidered in due course.

As stated, the department is currently investigating whether any of this data should also be published on the website www.data.gov.au

Disclosure log

The department's Disclosure Log contains FOI decision documents that contain statistical and other information the public may find useful. FOI decision documents can be reviewed by sorting documents by:

  • agency,
  • key words which describe the FOI request,
  • date of request, and
  • FOI exemption(s) used in the decision.

From commencement of the new Human Services Legislation Amendment Bill 2010, in July 2011, Medicare and Centrelink will integrate into one Department of State. The Disclosure Log will be available under the logo on the department's corporate webpage.

The department Disclosure Log only has the ability to publish documents in pdf. Until this can be made WCAG 2.0 compliant, customers who are unable to access pdf documents will be able to request these in hard copy either:

Administering the agency IPS

The department will continue to meet its IPS obligations by:

  • Holding the National Manager, Ombudsman, Privacy and FOI accountable for ongoing FOI reform obligations.
  • Maintaining and using the FOI reform contacts already established within each agency branch to assist in the continued implementation of FOI reform requirements.
  • Developing guidelines for all newly created documents, which will be made available to business areas. All newly created documents in the portfolio will be rigorously scrutinised to ensure that they comply with IPS requirements. It is envisaged the new guidelines and associated communication will be in place by July 2011.
  • Regularly reviewing documents to ensure they are accurate, up-to-date and complete.
  • Placing all newly created documents on the department's IPS repository from January 2012.
  • Regularly reviewing the IPS plan, particularly after the first 12 months to gauge customer interest in operational documents and assessing the department's capability moving forward.
  • Working towards satisfactory conformance with WCAG 2.0, particularly for the Disclosure Log.
  • Ensuring when the website is updated, links to documents remain accurate.

Review

The IPS plan will be reviewed in December 2012.

Until the IPS system is fully functional, manual statistics will be kept on the number of documents requested, which areas of business that authored the document, how many of these required FOI exemptions to be applied, how many documents were asked for in each request, and the request and finalisation dates.

The next review will be determined following an evaluation of these factors. However, reviews will be undertaken at least every five years, in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner.

Customer feedback will be considered in any reviews of Department of Human Services IPS plan.

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