South Australian Consolidated Acts

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1991 - SECT 53

53—Fees and charges

        (1)         The fees and charges payable under this Act must be fixed by the regulations or in accordance with a scale fixed in the regulations.

        (2)         The regulations—

            (a)         must provide for such waiver, reduction or remission of fees as may be necessary to ensure that disadvantaged persons are not prevented from exercising rights under this Act by reason of financial hardship;

            (b)         must provide for access to documents by Members of Parliament without charge unless the work generated by the application exceeds a threshold stated in the regulations,

and (except as provided by this section) the fees or charges must reflect the reasonable administrative costs incurred by agencies in exercising their functions under this Act.

        (2aa)         A fee or charge can only be required by an agency under this Act in respect of the costs to the agency of finding, sorting, compiling and copying documents necessary for the proper exercise of a function under this Act and undertaking any consultations required by this Act in relation to the exercise of that function.

        (2a)         An agency may, as it thinks fit, waive, reduce or remit a fee or charge in circumstances other than those in which such action is provided for under the regulations.

        (3)         Where an agency determines a fee or charge it must, at the request of the person required to pay, review the fee or charge and, if it thinks fit, reduce it.

        (4)         A person dissatisfied with the decision of an agency on an application for review of a fee or charge may apply to the Ombudsman or Police Complaints Authority for a further review, and the Ombudsman or Police Complaints Authority may, according to his or her determination of what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances of the particular case—

            (a)         waive, confirm or vary the fee or charge;

            (b)         give directions as to the time for payment of the fee or charge.

        (4a)         Such an application for further review must be directed to the Ombudsman unless the determination of the fee or charge was made by a police officer, or the Minister responsible for the administration of South Australia Police in that capacity, in which case it must be directed to the Police Complaints Authority.

        (5)         A fee or charge may be recovered by an agency as a debt.