The Premier’s Department Agency Information Guide

Our structure and functions

The Premier’s Department is a key department within the NSW public service. The Premier’s Department’s primary responsibility is to serve and advise key NSW Government officials in delivering their commitments and priorities.

The Premier’s Department supports:

• the Premier
• Special Minister of State
• Minister for Industrial Relations
• Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Treaty
• Minister for Women
• Minister for Emergency Services

The Premier’s Department plays a vital role in supporting these key government officials and their teams by:

• Providing leadership in policy development through its statutory and strategic role.
• Providing advice and innovative ideas.
• Coordinating and supporting Government plans and projects.
• Providing motivation and support to agencies to achieve policy and service delivery reform.
• Negotiating the resolution of issues.
• Coordinating the initiatives of Ministers and their agencies to achieve targets, and working with the Federal Government to fulfil other commitments.
• coordinating policies and services across government
• supporting the delivery of major projects and initiatives
• coordinating and planning significant state events
• supporting the machinery of government.

What kind of government information do we have?

Information is contained in the following records held by the Premier’s Department:

• policy documents including Memoranda and Circulars
• documents on internal administration of the department
• documents concerning appointments to various official positions
• policy and planning documents.

In addition, the department also maintains the following categories of records:

• Premier's and Minister's briefing papers
• correspondence with the Commonwealth
• correspondence with the other states and territories
• correspondence with members of the public
• correspondence with Ministers and other Members of Parliament
• internal working papers of the department
• correspondence with the Parliament and committees of the Houses of Parliament.

What kind of government information is available to the public, and how?

Open access information

The department makes available, free of charge on this website, the following “open access information”:

• the department's Annual Reports
• all other documents that are tabled in Parliament concerning the department
• all Premier’s Memoranda that set formal government policy (current and non-current)
• all Departmental Circulars issued by the Secretary of the Department (current and non-current)
• all other current policy documents
• details of significant government contracts and tenders
• disclosure log 
• Ministers' overseas travel information
• Advertising compliance certificates

Other proactively released information

In addition to open access information, the department proactively makes available, free of charge on this website, a large range of additional information, including the following:

• Ministers' Office Handbook

Information available on informal request

A request may be made at any time for other information held by the department. While the department reserves the right to require a formal access application to be made under the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act), the department will generally provide the following types of information in response to an informal request without the need to make a formal access application:

• copies of correspondence, where the person requesting the correspondence was the person who sent it to the department
• documents that contain only personal information about a particular individual, and that is the person who is requesting the information
• documents that have already been made public in some other way
• other reasonable requests for information the release of which would not raise any potential concerns in terms of public interest considerations against disclosure.

The department reserves the right to impose conditions in relation to the use or disclosure of information that is released in response to an informal request.

Access applications are subject to application fees and processing charges.

Although an access application may be made for all other government information held by the department, the department will not release information if there is an overriding public interest against the disclosure of the information.

Some of the particular information that the department cannot release in response to an access application includes:

• Cabinet information (as defined in clause 2 of Schedule 1 to the GIPA Act)
• Executive Council information (as defined in clause 3 of Schedule 1 to the GIPA Act)
• Documents that are subject to Parliamentary privilege, such as draft answers to Questions on Notice (item 4 of Schedule 1 to the GIPA Act)

Otherwise, the department will release information in response to a valid access application unless there is an overriding public interest against disclosure.