The Government received a total of 2 059 requests for information under the Code on Access to Information in the third quarter of 2018, a spokesman for the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau said today (March 29).
The total number of requests received since the introduction of the Code in March 1995 and up to the end of September 2018 amounted to 67 138. Of these, 4 003 requests were subsequently withdrawn by the requestors and 3 291 requests covered cases in which the bureaux/departments concerned did not hold the requested information or could not confirm or deny the existence of information. As at September 30, 2018, 306 requests were still being processed by bureaux/departments.
Among the 59 538 requests which covered information held by bureaux/departments and which the bureaux/departments had responded to, 58 109 requests (97.6 per cent) were met, either in full (56 745 requests) or in part (1 364 requests), and 1 429 requests (2.4 per cent) were refused.
Any member of the public who is dissatisfied with the response of a bureau/department under the Code may request that the matter be reviewed. He or she may also lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman.
In the third quarter of 2018, the Ombudsman received 17 complaints relating to requests for information. In this quarter, the Ombudsman concluded 38 complaints, among which three were substantiated, 16 were partially substantiated, three were unsubstantiated, 15 were settled after inquiries by the Ombudsman, and one was not pursued by the Ombudsman or outside the Ombudsman's jurisdiction. As at September 30, 2018, the Ombudsman's investigations on 20 complaints were ongoing.
"The Code has provided an effective framework for the public to seek access to information held by the Government," the spokesman said.
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