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 complaints in 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 complaints in inventory

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

There were 2,155 complaints admissible for investigation in the inventory on March 31, 2026. Of these, 194 (9%) were more than two years old (submitted on or before March 31, 2024). The remaining 1,961 (91%) were submitted between April 1, 2024, and March 31, 2026.

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 fourth quarter of 2025–26, complainants submitted 604 delay complaints (2,259 for the year), 126 extension of time complaints (456 for the year) and 357 refusal complaints (1,185 for the year). In addition, 572 complaints submitted were determined not to be admissible for investigation (1,939 for the year).

On March 31, 2026, the OIC was in the process of determining the admissibility of 94 other complaints.

Note: Minor adjustments were made to previous quarters’ data following a detailed year-end file review.

Complaints submitted and concluded

In the fourth quarter of 2025–26, complainants submitted 1,659 complaints, while the OIC concluded 1,563. For the year, 5,839 complaints were submitted and 5,894 concluded.

On March 31, 2026, the OIC was in the process of determining the admissibility of 94 other complaints.

Note: Minor adjustments were made to previous quarters’ data for complaints submitted following a detailed year-end file review.

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 fourth quarter of 2025–26, the OIC concluded 375 complaints as well founded or not well founded (1,200 for the year), and 109 were discontinued (825 for the year). The Commissioner ceased to investigate 507 complaints (1,930 for the year), and 572 were concluded by the Registry (1,939 for the year).

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 fourth quarter of 2025–26, 109 complaints required orders. This amounts to 11% of all complaints concluded through investigations and 57% of all well-founded complaints (those for which the Commissioner has the power to issue orders). For the year, the Commissioner issued 339 orders. This equals 8.32% of all complaints concluded through investigations and 51.21% of all well-founded complaints.

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 fourth quarter of 2025–26, the Commissioner received 3 such applications, 8 were completed (2 granted, 3 denied and 3 withdrawn) and 11 had been carried over from the previous quarter, leaving a total of 6 ongoing applications. For the year, the Commissioner received 15 applications and completed 11.

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