Price and Surveyors' Board of Queensland

Application number:
1995 S0201
Decision date:
Thursday, Nov 23, 2000

Price and Surveyors' Board of Queensland
(1995 S0201, 23 November 2000) 

In this case, the Information Commissioner considered various 'sufficiency of search' issues in accordance with the principles stated in Shepherd and Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning (1994) 1 QAR 464. 

The Information Commissioner decided that working notes produced by an independent surveyor, engaged by the Board to conduct an investigation into the complaints of the applicant against another surveyor, were not documents of the Board, and were therefore not subject to the FOI Act.  In addition, the Information Commissioner decided that, in the particular circumstances of the case, records of an interview between the investigator and the surveyor who was subject to investigation were exempt under s.46(1)(a) of the FOI Act, as the Board owed an equitable duty of confidence to the surveyor.