ICO Decision On Customs Department

The Acting Information Commissioner issued Decision 12/2025 regarding the Customs Department.

A spokesperson said, “On 2 April 2025, the Acting Information Commissioner issued Decision 12/2025, Customs Department, which found that the Department failed to issue an internal review decision on a PATI request seeking correspondence about the importation of goods within the 6- week timeline set out in the Act. Since the Department issued an internal review decision to the Applicant during the Commissioner’s review, no further action was required.

“In ‘failure to decide’ cases, the Information Commissioner does not address the underlying records responsive to a PATI request. Instead, it is a decision on whether a public authority has responded to a request within the statutory timeframe. Once an internal review decision has been issued, if a PATI requester is not satisfied with the public authority’s response, they may seek a Commissioner’s review of that substantive decision. It is at that stage that the Commissioner will consider whether a public authority, such as the Customs Department, has properly denied access to any of the requested records.”

The full version of Decision 12/2025 follows below [PDF here]:

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