Administrative access to documents held in public schools: How the Department of Education implemented our recommendations: Follow-up audit on Report No. 2 for 2021-22
Since 2009, Queensland’s Parliament and Government have promoted proactive release of government held information under the Right to Information and Information Privacy Acts 2009 (the Acts), recognising that such information is a public resource.
The Acts emphasise proactive release of information to members of the community through various means, including making information available administratively.
In 2021-22, the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) examined the Department of Education’s (Department) arrangements for providing administrative access to documents held in public schools. We tabled a Report in Parliament with our findings and made six recommendations on how the Department can improve its arrangements to administratively release information held by schools. . The Department accepted all recommendations and agreed to implement them by May 2024.
Today the Chair of the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee tabled in Parliament my follow-up audit report into the Department’s progress in implementing the six recommendations made in our 2021-22 audit.
While the follow-up audit found the Department has made progress in implementing the recommendations, there is more work for the Department to do to implement all recommendations from the original audit. Three years after the last audit, the Department is still finalising its new administrative release procedure and guideline which directly impacts how schools go about making information available in a consistent and easy manner. Accordingly, the Information Commissioner found the Department’s actions to date are insufficient to improve administrative access to documents held in schools for students, parents and staff, and the broader community.