Released today, the 2012/13 Annual Report on the Administration of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act provides a summary of government's work to administer the Act from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013.

Highlights include:

• In 2012/13, government received a total of 10,299 general and personal FOI requests, representing a 22% increase over the 2011/12 year's total of 8,423, and marks the largest-ever increase in general requests.
• In total, approximately 98.5% of requests were processed without fees.
• As of March 31, 2013, the Open Information website has published more than 2,500 FOI requests and over 1,000 travel expense summaries for ministers and deputy ministers.
• The ministry's privacy helpline, where public bodies can get information and clarity on government's policy, received more than 1,400 calls.
• The DataBC catalogue now hosts over 3,000 free, searchable datasets, and has had over 100,000 downloads of data by users.

The Annual Report on the Administration of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act is released as part of the province's Open Government mandate and can be found online at: http://www.gov.bc.ca/citz/iao/foi/crts_statistics/index.html

Media Contact:

Jason Macnaughton
Communications Director
Ministry of Technology, Innovation and Citizens' Services
250 387-3134