Quarterly statistics

The Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) publishes statistics about its complaint caseload and related work, including decisions by the OIC Registry (the group that receives, reviews and processes new complaints) about whether complaints are admissible, and investigations into admissible complaints.

The following graphs are updated quarterly and are supplemented by data in the Information Commissioner’s annual report.

For more information on the OIC’s investigations-related performance targets and progress against them, consult the Departmental Plan and Departmental Results Report.

• Age of complaint inventory
• Complaints submitted
• Complaints submitted and concluded
• Outcomes of concluded complaints
• Complaints concluded through investigations with orders
• Applications for permission to decline to act on access requests

Age of complaint inventory

The Information Commissioner strives to have as contemporary an inventory of complaints to investigate as possible.

There were 2,294 complaints admissible for investigation in the inventory on June 30, 2025. Of these, 231 (11%) were more than two years old (submitted on or before June 30, 2023). The remaining 2,063 (89%) were submitted between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2025.

The OIC’s goal is always to have 15% or less of the complaints in the inventory be older than two years.

Complaints submitted

The OIC categorizes complaints submitted into three types:

• Delay complaints: these focus on institutions’ lack of response to access requests after the deadlines set out in the Access to Information Act.
• Extension of time complaints: these focus on whether the extra time an institution decided to take to respond to an access request is reasonable, whether the extension of time was taken for legitimate reasons, or whether the institution followed the rules in the Act for claiming the extension.
• Refusal complaints: these focus on institutions’ application of exemptions and exclusions under the Act, the adequacy of their record searches, the application of fees, the provision of records in a particular official language, the provision of records in alternative formats, publications under section 5 of the Act, and other matters relating to requesting or obtaining access to records.

In the first quarter of 2025–26, complainants submitted 482 delay complaints, 140 extension of time complaints and 272 refusal complaints. In addition, 435 complaints submitted were determined not to be admissible for investigation.

On June 30, 2025, the OIC was in the process of determining the admissibility of 88 other complaints.

Complaints submitted and concluded

In the first quarter of 2025–26, complainants submitted 1,329 complaints, while the OIC concluded 1,245.

On June 30, 2025, the OIC was in the process of determining the admissibility of 88 other complaints.

Outcomes of concluded complaints

Complainants can receive one of several outcomes when they submit a complaint:

• a finding of well founded or not well founded after an investigation
• discontinued, when complainants choose to withdraw complaints
• ceased to investigate, when the Commissioner stops an investigation, most often when it is no longer necessary because the complainant has received a response to their access request as a result of the OIC’s work
• concluded by Registry, when the OIC Registry (the group that receives, reviews and processes new complaints) concludes complaints as not admissible for investigation (e.g. complaints submitted late or outside the Commissioner’s mandate) or the Commissioner refuses to investigate them.

In the first quarter of 2025–26, the OIC concluded 236 complaints as well founded or not well founded, and 202 were discontinued. The Commissioner ceased to investigate 372 complaints, and 435 were concluded by the Registry.

More information: What are the possible outcomes for my complaint?

Complaints concluded through investigations with orders

The majority of complaints the OIC concludes do not require the Commissioner to issue orders.

In the first quarter of 2025–26, 70 complaints required orders. This amounts to 8.64% of all complaints concluded through investigations and 49.29% of all well-founded complaints (those for which the Commissioner has the power to issue orders).

More information: Information Commissioner’s orders

Applications for permission to decline to act on access requests

Institutions may apply to the Commissioner for permission to decline to act on access requests. They may choose to do this when they are of the view that the requests are vexatious, made in bad faith or an abuse of the right to make a request for access to records.

In the first quarter of 2025–26, the Commissioner received 5 such applications, 0 were completed and 2 had been carried over from the previous quarter, leaving a total of 7 ongoing applications.

More information: Commissioner’s approval to decline to act on an access request, Process: seeking the Information Commissioner’s approval to decline to act on an access request under section 6.1, Frequently asked questions