Section 36: Prejudice To Effective Conduct Of Public Affairs
Section 36 exempts information whose disclosure would be likely to have
any the following effects:
prejudice collective Cabinet responsibility;
inhibit the free and frank provision of advice and exchange of views
for the purposes of deliberation; or
prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs.
Key points:
Section 36 can only be used if, in the reasonable view of
a "qualified person", disclosure of the requested
information would have one of the specified prejudicial effects. For
most government departments, this means that a Minister of the Crown
must decide that the exemption applies before it can be relied on
to refuse a request for information;
Section 36 can only be used if section 35 does not apply to the information;
The application of section 36 is subject to a public interest balance.
