PART I - Preliminary Short title and commencement 1. This Act may be cited as the Freedom of Information Act, 2010, and shall come into operation on such date as the Minister may, by Order published in the Gazette, appoint. Interpretation 2. (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires - “applicant” means a person who has made a request in accordance with section 9; “document” means any medium in which information is recorded, whether printed or on tape or film or by electronic means or otherwise and includes any map, diagram, photograph, film, microfilm, video-tape, sound recording, or machine-readable record or any record which is capable of being produced from a machine-readable record by means of equipment or a programme (or a combination of both) which is used for that purpose by the public authority which holds the record; “exempt document” means a document which, by virtue of any provision of Part IV, is an exempt document; “exempt information” means information the inclusion of which in a document causes the document to be an exempt document; “official document” means a document held by a public authority in connection with its functions as such, whether or not it was created (a) by that authority; or (b) before the commencement of this Act; “personal information” means information about an individual, including (a) information relating to the race, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, sex or marital status of the individual; 4