Section 16 Manual

4.16 Admission of late applications for review

Section 34(4) provides that applications for review must be made within the following time limits :

  • In the case of decisions under section 9 to extend the time taken for consideration of a request - not later than two weeks after the notification of the decision to the relevant person concerned

  • In the case of a decision on a request to which section 29 applies - not later than two weeks after the notification of the decision to the relevant person concerned and
  • not later than six months after the notification of the decision in other cases.

4.17 However, in all three cases the Commissioner may extend this period if she is of the opinion that there are reasonable grounds for doing so.

4.18 This means that late applications should not be admitted as a matter of course. Apart from the clear provisions of the Act, there may well be good reasons why an application should be refused. For example, in the intervening period the views of the public body may have changed and it is possible that a fresh FOI request will yield a different result. In other cases the requirements of certainty suggest that a public body should not continue to be at risk of review of its decision after the elapse of a reasonable period of time.

4.19 Among the grounds which might be considered reasonable in some cases are 'force majeure' situations, e.g. illness, absence from home, failure by the public body to give the requester details of their right of appeal to this Office, or evidence of genuine confusion by the requester(s) in relation to the appeal process. However, the Commissioner will decide each case on its merits and it is not possible to set out in advance a comprehensive set of grounds that will be considered reasonable.

4.20 In cases where the application is made outside the deadline, the applicant should be informed in writing that the application is out of time and that the Commissioner will only admit a late application if there are reasonable grounds for doing so. The applicant will be invited to make a submission regarding any reasonable grounds for extending the application deadline.

4.21 If the applicant requests the Commissioner to exercise her discretion and puts forward grounds for doing so, the matter should be discussed with a Senior Investigator prior to making a decision to accept or reject the application for review. In certain cases the Commissioner may invite the public body's comments on a late application.

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