Cashel and WorkCover Queensland
(2000 S0167, 13 September 2000)
The applicant sought access to copies of psychological tests completed by him as part of an assessment conducted by an independent psychologist at WorkCover's request. The Information Commissioner was satisfied that WorkCover did not hold copies of the tests and that they were not 'documents of an agency' as defined in s.7 of the FOI Act, according to the principles stated in Holt and Education Queensland (1998) 4 QAR 310 and Price and Nominal Defendant (1999) 5 QAR 80.
The Information Commissioner decided that the expert services of the psychologist were provided to WorkCover on a contractual basis which entitled WorkCover to the psychologist's report, but not to the resources used by him in forming his expert opinion.
In relation to 'sufficiency of search' issues raised by the applicant, the Information Commissioner found that WorkCover had conducted reasonable searches for further documents falling within the terms of the applicant's FOI access application. The Information Commissioner was satisfied that there were no further documents held by WorkCover that were responsive to the terms of the relevant FOI access application.