Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic


Freedom of Information

The Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic as a public administration body is obliged by the Freedom of Information Act (Act No. 211/2000 Coll. on free access to information and on amendments and supplements to certain acts) to provide access to certain information to anyone who requests it. A request for access to information under the Freedom of Information Act may be submitted:

The request must include:

 

Period for compliance with request

 

The ministry shall comply with the request for information without undue delay, but not later than 8 working days and in case of providing information after filing of the request or after the day the applicant removed deficiencies of the request, unless otherwise is stipulated.

The period can be extended to 15 working daysifrequested information is provided in an acceptable form to a person with visual impairment. The Ministry is entitled to extend this period due to specific exceptions (defined by the Act) by a maximum of 8 working days or 15 working days in case of accessing information to a blind person.The obliged person shall notify the applicant of the extension of the period without undue delay, however not later than before a statutory period is expired. The notice must include the reasons leading to the extension of the period.

If the Ministry does not have the requested information available but at the same time it knows who is obtaining the information, it shall forward the request within 5 days from receiving the request to that entity.

Compliance with request & Remedies

If the Ministry fails to satisfy the request, even partially, it shall issue a written decision about it within a statutory period. If the Ministry neither issue that decision nor provides access to the information within the statutory period it shall be deemed that the Ministry issued “a fictive decision” rejecting access to requested information.

A person whose request for access to information was rejected is entitled to appeal against the decision of the Ministry within 15 days from delivering the appeal by the obliged person. If the Ministry does not fully decides about the appeal within 30 days, the appeal shall be put forward to the special Minister´s commission on appeal proceedings that shall prepare the Minister´s decision about the appeal.