As the Deputy is aware, under the Freedom of Information Acts the Information Commissioner is independent in the performance of her functions. My Department has been informed by the Office of the Information Commissioner that at the end of August 2012, there were 209 applications for review awaiting decision in the Office, including 16 applications which were received in 2009 and which require the consideration of complex issues and/or large volumes of records. The Deputy may wish to note that as set out in the Information Commissioner’s Annual Report for 2011 published in May 2012, 57% of cases closed last year were over one year old reflecting specific initiatives aimed at closing older cases. In addition, the length of time taken to deal with each application depends on a number of factors, including the complexity of the issues involved and the volume of records at issue.
I am advised that the Information Commissioner is very conscious of the statutory requirement that reviews are completed, in so far as practicable, within four months of receipt. With this in mind, the Information Commissioner has recently arranged for resources to be reassigned within her office to reduce the number of cases on hand. An examination of current structures and processes is also actively under way to optimise the number of reviews completed within four months. The Information Commissioner stated in her Annual Report that her Office will continue to endeavour to close cases within four months while also concentrating on older cases.
The information requested by the Deputy on investigative staffing levels of the Office for the past four years is set out in the following table.
|
-
|
2008
|
2009
|
2010
|
2011
|
|
Senior Investigator
|
2
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
|
Investigator
|
9.4
|
8.8
|
8.8
|
9
|
