Section summary
If an agency intends to rely on section 52(1)(a) of the RTI Act to refuse access to a prescribed document on the basis that the document does not exist and the agency or Minister considers the document has been kept in, and is retrievable from a backup system, the agency or Minister must search the backup system before refusing access.
Other relevant RTI/IP Act sections
Schedule 6 RTI ActSchedule 6 defines 'backup system' for the purposes of the RTI Act as:
a system that has, for disaster recovery purposes, copied electronic data onto a separate data storage medium, for example onto a backup tape.
Section 29 RTI ActSection 29 of the RTI Act provides that an agency or Minister is generally not required to search a backup system for documents relevant to an access application.
Section 49 IP ActSection 49 of the IP Act replicates section 29 of the RTI Act and is relevant to dealing with access applications under the IP Act.
Last updated: December 20, 2021