For the disclosure decision period and the related periods, how must the days be counted, and which days are left out?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, the papers to read are the information disclosure request and the date the agency received it, the agency's decision on whether to disclose, and, where an objection was filed, the objection application and the decision on it. Each fixes the start and end of a period the provision names.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading applies the special rule to all three periods the provision lists: the decision period on whether to disclose, the period elapsed after a disclosure request, and the objection decision period are each counted in day units, the first day is included in the count, and public holidays and Saturdays are excluded from it.
Another reading notes the general rule underneath: period calculation otherwise follows the Civil Code, so only the three listed periods get the day-unit counting with the first day included and holidays and Saturdays excluded, and how any other period under the Act is calculated is left to the Civil Code, which this provision does not set out.
Your judgment
If an agency or a party misses one of these three periods, does the step still stand, or is it treated as having been taken too late?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the days excluded from the count or the periods it lists, or if a decision explains what follows when one of these periods is missed.