Section 15 — Official Information Act 1982: Decisions on requests

15 Decisions on requests (1) Subject to this Act, the Department or Minister of the Crown or organisation to whom a request is made in accordance with section 12 or is transferred in accordance with section 14 of this Act or section 12 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request is received by that Department or Minister of the Crown or organisation,— (a) Decide whether the request is to be granted and, if it is to be granted, in what manner and for what charge (if any); and (b) Give or post to the person who made the request notice of the decision on the request. (1A) Subject to section 24 of this Act, every Department or Minister of the Crown or organisation (including an organisation whose activities are funded in whole or in part by another person) may charge for the supply of official information under this Act. (2) Any charge fixed shall be reasonable and regard may be had to the cost of the labour and materials involved in making the information available to and to any costs incurred pursuant to a request of the applicant to make the information available urgently. (3) The Department or Minister of the Crown or organisation may require that the whole or part of any charge be paid in advance. (4) Where a request in accordance with section 12 of this Act is made or transferred to a Department, the decision on that request shall be made by the permanent head of that Department or an officer or employee of that Department authorised by that permanent head unless that request is transferred in accordance with section 14 of this Act to another Department or to a Minister of the Crown or to an organisation or to a local authority. (5) Nothing in subsection (4) of this section prevents the permanent head of a Department or any officer or employee of a Department from consulting a Minister of the Crown or any other person in relation to the decision that the permanent head or officer or employee proposes to make on any request made to the Department in accordance with section 12 of this Act or transferred to the Department in accordance with section 14 of this Act or section 12 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 . This section was substituted, as from 1 April 1987, by section 8(1) Official Information Amendment Act 1987 (1987 No 8). See section 8(2) of that Act. Subsection (1A) was inserted, as from 1 December 1989, by section 2 Official Information Amendment Act 1989 (1989 No 122). Subsections (1), (4), and (5) were amended, as from 1 March 1988, by section 57(1) Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (1987 No 174) by inserting the words “ or section 12 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 ” , “ or to a local authority ” , and “ or section 12 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 ” , respectively. See section 1(2) of that Act.