Our reference: FOI 20/21-0658

                                                   GPO Box 700
                                                                          Canberra ACT  2601
                                                                     1800 800 110

19 May 2021 ndis.gov.au Ginger Meany By email: foi+request-7252-a29f05f5@righttoknow.org.au

Dear Ginger Meany

Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process

Thank you for your correspondence of 15 April 2021, in which you requested access under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).

Scope of your request You have requested access to documents about the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). Specifically, you requested access to:

“...a copy of the contract documents issued to the organisations who successfully

tendered for the Independent Assessment Panel, advertised as a Request for Tender on the 13-Mar-2020, under category 85122200 - Individual health screening and assessment services. The ATM ID is RFT 1000724626”

Practical refusal I am authorised to make decisions under the FOI Act.

I am writing to advise that that the work involved in processing your request in its current form would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations due to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of the FOI Act.

On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.

Why I intend to refuse your request – I have conducted a preliminary search for documents which are likely to be relevant to your request. This search has revealed that the NDIA is in possession of a large number of documents matching the scope of your request, not including any attachments which may be contained within those documents.

Based on a preliminary examination of a sample of 15% of the documents found in this search, I consider that:  the total amount of pages of all the documents within the scope of the request is likely to exceed 600; and  it would therefore take more than 90 hours to review and collate the documents.

As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.

Request consultation process

You now have an opportunity to revise your request to enable it to proceed.

Revising your request can mean narrowing the scope of the request to make it more manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access. For example, by providing more specific information about exactly within documents you are interested in, the NDIA will be able to pinpoint the documents more quickly and avoid using excessive resources to process documents you are not interested in.

To reduce the scope of your request, you might like to consider:

You may like to consider narrowing your scope to a particular contract. The panel arrangement means that while the contracts are similar, each contract is a unique document. Individual contracts with attachments range from approximately 100 to 300 pages.

You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the following: a. withdraw your request; b. make a revised request; or c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.

During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above, we will recommence processing it.

Please note that the time taken to consult with you regarding the scope of your request is not taken into account for the purposes of the timeframe for processing your request.

You can contact me by email at foi@ndis.gov.au

Alternatively, you can reply in writing to the following address:

Freedom of Information Section Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch Government Division National Disability Insurance Agency GPO Box 700 CANBERRA ACT 2601

If you do not contact me within this period, that is by 2 June 2021, your FOI request will be taken to have been withdrawn under subsection 24AB(7) and will not be dealt with any further.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely

Ausilia Woodhead Assistant Director Parliamentary, Ministerial & FOI Branch Government Division