Act 6
Access to Information Act
2005
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the information officer to whom the request is made shall, as soon as reasonably
possible but in any event within twenty one days after the request is received (i) transfer the request to the information officer of the other public body; and
(ii) if the public body of the information officer to whom the request is made is in
possession of the record and considers it is helpful to do so to enable the
information officer of the other public body to deal with the request, send the
record or a copy of the record to that information officer.
(2) Upon the transfer of a request for access, the information officer making the transfer
shall immediately notify the person requesting access of (a) the transfer;
(b) the reasons for the transfer; and
(c) the period within which the request shall be dealt with.
14. Records that cannot be found or do not exist.
(1) Where a request for access is made to the information officer of a public body in
respect of which (a) the record is not in the possession or under the control of the public body of that
information officer and the information officer does not know which public body has
possession or control of the record; or
(b) all reasonable steps have been taken to find the record requested; and
(c) there are reasonable grounds for believing that the record (i) is in the possession of the public body but cannot be found; or
(ii) does not exist,
the information officer shall, in writing, notify the person that it is not possible to give
access to that record.
(2) The notice referred to in subsection (1) shall give a full account of all steps taken to
find the record in question or to determine whether the record exists, as the case may be,
including all communications with every person who conducted the search on behalf of
the information officer.
(3) For the purposes of this Act, the notice under subsection (1) is to be regarded as a
decision to refuse a request for access to the record.
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