Freedom of Information Requests on The Rise.

September 23, 2024 nnpress

The Province kept pace with a 25 per cent increase in requests under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) Act last year.

Despite the high volume, staff once again completed 80 per cent of requests within 30 days or fewer in 2023-24, matching last year’s rate. Eighty-nine per cent of requests were completed within legislative timelines, which includes those completed within 30 days as well as requests that were granted an extension.

“Our commitment to the FOIPOP Act and to ensuring Nova Scotians’ right of access to information remains an important priority for government,” said Colton LeBlanc, Minister of Service Nova Scotia. “As always, our staff worked incredibly hard to tackle last year’s high volume of requests, engaging with colleagues across government to fulfill our FOIPOP responsibilities, while taking great care to respect the act’s privacy provisions.”

The Information Access and Privacy Services annual report was released today, September 23. It provides information about the Province’s compliance with the FOIPOP Act, including volume of requests, outcomes, application types, acceptance rates for the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s recommendations and the government’s timelines for completing requests.

In 2023-24, the Province received 3,423 applications under the FOIPOP Act, up from 2,702 the previous year. The applications reviewed within the reporting period totalled about 413,000 pages.

The act acknowledges that extra time is sometimes needed in cases where a request requires a large volume of records from across departments, consultation with other public bodies or third parties, or when more information is needed from the applicant to clarify the scope of the request.

The report is available at: https://beta.novascotia.ca/documents/information-access-and-privacy-services-annual-report-2023-2024

Quick Facts:

for the reporting period, the Province completed 3,316 requests, including carryover requests from previous years, and with some requests carrying over to the next reporting period
the average page count per request was 192 pages; the largest single page count in any one application was 52,500 pages
the Province conducts specialized access and privacy training sessions for hundreds of staff every year
Right to Know Week begins today, September 23; it is marked each year in Canada to raise awareness of the importance of access rights and open, transparent government