During the four years since the law came into force granting access to information held by public authorities, the Information Commissioner has received 78 complaints from members of the public, the official said on Monday.

Commissioner Irini Loizidou-Nicolaidou was speaking at a news conference recapping the work of her office since December 2020 when the relevant law was passed.

She said that during this time her office has received 78 complaints and has answered 45 questions from members of the public.

In addition, her office has approved 267 publication schemes. A publication scheme is essentially a brief description by a government department or any public authority of the type of information that it can disclose to the public on request. Typically published on an authority’s website, the scheme must also indicate what type of information is given for free, and what for a small fee.

If a member of the public is unsatisfied with the response of a government department or public authority, he or she can file a complaint to the Information Commissioner.

As such, the Commissioner is only aware of the number of complaints filed, not the number of requests made to public authorities.

Anyone can request information from a public authority – whether they are a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, a permanent resident, a temporary resident, or even a non-resident foreign national.

Requests can be made via a standard form – which to date only some departments make available on their respective websites – or simply via email. The person making the request must identify themselves and provide a contact number.

And, Loizidou-Nicolaidou stressed, the person requesting information does not need to have a legitimate interest.

One issue identified is that, when responding, public authorities do not state whether they have the information on hand. But this is a crucial step and obligation, she said.

In other words, whether an authority decides to grant or decline a request for information, it still has to let the person asking whether it has that information or not.

The Information Commissioner said the law is about transparency and accountability.

The law includes exceptions – cases where requests for information are denied outright. This chiefly pertains to issues of national security – the military, the police, the intelligence service.

Contacted by the Cyprus Mail, Loizidou-Nicolaidou explained that a public authority has 30 days in which to respond to an information request. If it does not, or if it responds in a manner deemed inadequate by the member of the public, the requester has 14 days to report the matter to the Information Commissioner, who will investigate.

The Commissioner then has 14 days to get back to the requester, having in the meantime sided either with the requester or the public authority. In case of the latter, if a member of the public is unsatisfied with the Commissioner, he or she may take recourse with the administrative court.

If the Commissioner deems that a public authority has fallen foul of its obligations, she may issue that authority a warning or impose an administrative of €5,000, and thereafter an additional €50 for every day of non-compliance.

So far, said Loizidou-Nicolaidou, she has not had to issue any fines.

Asked for examples where she sided with a public authority and opined against the requester, the Commissioner gave a couple. One was where a person had requested access to the files of civil servants in a certain department covering a period of ten years. That request was deemed excessive.

Another was where the requester wanted to know whether there was a commercial contract between a government department and a third party – meaning a private company.

The Commissioner’s website: www.informationcommissioner.gov.cy