Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Freedom of Information Act 1982 - SECT 23

Forms of access

23. Forms of access



(1) Access to a document may be given to a person in one or more of the
following forms-

   (a)  a reasonable opportunity to inspect the document;

   (b)  provision by the agency or Minister of a copy of the document;

   (c)  in the case of a document that is an article or thing from which
        sounds or visual images are capable of being reproduced, the making of
        arrangements for the person to hear or view those sounds or visual
        images; or

   (d)  in the case of a document by which words are recorded in a manner in
        which they are capable of being reproduced in the form of sound or in
        which words are contained in the form of shorthand writing or in
        codified form, provision by the agency or Minister of a written
        transcript of the words recorded or contained in the document; or

   (e)  in the case of a document containing health information relating to
        the person, by a way referred to in section 28(1), (2) or (3) of the
        Health Records Act 2001 in the manner provided in section 29(1) of
        that Act.

(2) Subject to this section and to sections 19 and 25, where the applicant has
requested access in a particular form, access shall be given in that form.

(3) If the form of access requested by the applicant-

   (a)  would interfere unreasonably with the operations of the agency, or the
        performance by the Minister of his functions, as the case may be;

   (b)  would be detrimental to the preservation of the document or having
        regard to the physical nature of the document, would not be
        appropriate; or

   (c)  would involve an infringement of copyright subsisting in a person
        other than the State, or, in the case of an application to a council,
        other than the council-

access in that form may be refused and access given in another form.

(4) If an applicant is given access to a document in a form that is different
from the form of access requested by the applicant, the applicant shall not be
required to pay a charge that is greater than the charge that would have been
payable if access had been given in the form requested by the applicant.

(5) Access under subsection (1)(a) in respect of a document to which section
15(1) applies shall be given by affording the applicant a reasonable
opportunity to inspect the document on the premises of the Public Record
Office of Victoria.

(6) In respect of a document which is more than twenty years old or which is
in the custody of the Public Record Office of Victoria, the Keeper of Public
Records may determine that the granting of access in any one or more but not
all of the forms referred to in subsection (1) would be detrimental to the
preservation of the document or, having regard to the physical nature of the
document, would not be appropriate.

(7) Where the Keeper of Public Records has made a determination in accordance
with subsection (6), access shall not be granted in the form or forms
specified in the determination but may be given in any of the remaining forms
provided under subsection (1).