Application of section 40 RTI Act

Under section 40, the applicant's specific words and the way they have written their application must be considered to determine if all or part of the application is for:

• all documents that contain information of a stated kind or relating to a stated subject matter; or
• all documents of a stated class that contain information of a stated kind or relating to a stated subject matter.

If so, the agency may be able to refuse to deal with the application or part of the application if all the information applied for is exempt information. If not, there is no need to consider the information applied for, as section 40 cannot apply.

Refer to Refusal to deal - all documents exempt for guidance on applying this section.