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Appendix B: Other statistics

Table B1 provides information on costing and budget analysis requests from parliamentarians and parliamentary parties over the past five financial years.

Table B1: Costing and budget analysis requests from parliamentarians and parliamentary parties by year

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

Requests outstanding at start of period

76

138

20

180

586

Requests received in period

973

4,146

2,572

2,218

3,014*

Requests withdrawn in period

42

1,013

524

252

610

Requests completed in period

869

3,251

1,888

1,560

2,970*

Average time to completion
(business days)

20

19

20

20

18

Median time to completion
(business days)

12

16

12

15

12

Requests outstanding at end of period

138

20

180

586

20

* includes 427 costings prepared for the purpose of the election commitment report

Note: The table identifies the number of ‘options’ contained in requests completed by the PBO, noting that a single request can contain multiple options.

Table B2: Information requests to Commonwealth agencies by year

2014–15

2015–16

2016–17

2017–18

2018–19

Requests outstanding at start of period

16

3

1

16

11

Requests sent in period

203

743

523

424

539

Requests received in period

216

745

508

429

549

Requests received by due date

147

695

499

425

540

Requests received after due date

69

50

9

4

9

Percentage received on time

68

93

98

99

98

Average time taken to respond
(business days)

13

7

8

9

7

Average punctuality
(business days late)

3

-1

-2

-1

-3

Average lateness of late responses
(business days)

11

3

3

3

3

Requests outstanding at end of period

3

1

16

11

1

Table B3: Information request responsiveness by Commonwealth agencies—2018–19

Department/Agency

Responses received
in period

Average time taken to respond (business days)

Responses received after due date

Per cent late

Attorney-General's Department

12

6

1

8%

Australian Bureau of Statistics

1

17

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

5

7

Australian Securities and Investments Commission

6

8

Australian Taxation Office

67

5

Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre

1

10

Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation

1

9

Department of Agriculture and Water Resources

10

6

1

10%

Department of Communications and the Arts

11

5

1

9%

Department of Defence

5

8

Department of Education and Training

31

7

Department of Finance

49

5

1

2%

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

9

4

1

11%

Department of Health

34

7

1

3%

Department of Home Affairs

32

9

Department of Human Services

14

5

Department of Industry, Innovation and Science

13

4

Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities

13

4

Department of Jobs and Small Business

17

5

Department of Social Services

73

12

1

1%

Department of the Environment and Energy

17

7

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

6

6

Department of the Treasury

97

7

2

2%

Department of Veterans’ Affairs

24

6

Total

548

7

9

2%