Ordinance
on Freedom of Information in the Administration
(Freedom of Information Ordinance, FoIO)

¹ In­form­a­tion sup­plied by an au­thor­ity in ex­change for pay­ment, in­clud­ing in­form­a­tion that is of dir­ect use in the man­u­fac­ture of a product, is deemed to be a com­mer­cially used doc­u­ment.

² A doc­u­ment shall be deemed to have been defin­it­ively is­sued, where:

a.

it has been signed by the au­thor­ity from which it ori­gin­ated; or

b.

its cre­at­or has provided a fi­nal copy there­of to the re­cip­i­ent for in­form­a­tion pur­poses or so that the lat­ter may take a po­s­i­tion or a de­cision.

³ A doc­u­ment shall be deemed to be for per­son­al use, where it com­prises in­form­a­tion re­served for work-re­lated pur­poses, provided that same shall solely be used by its cre­at­or or by a lim­ited group of per­sons as work-sup­port­ing doc­u­ment­a­tion, such as notes or work­ing cop­ies of doc­u­ments.

As a su­per­vis­ory au­thor­ity in ac­cord­ance with Art­icle 12 let­ter b^ter of the Anti-Money Laun­der­ing Act of 10 Oc­to­ber 1997³, in con­junc­tion with Art­icle 42^ter of the Pre­cious Metals Con­trol Act of 20 June 1933⁴(PMCA) and Art­icle 36 para­graph 2 let­ter g of the PMCA, the Cent­ral Of­fice for Pre­cious Metals Con­trol does not fall with­in the scope of the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act.

(Art. 6 para. 1 FoIA)

If ac­cess to a pub­lic doc­u­ment is gran­ted to one per­son, each fur­ther ap­plic­ant is gran­ted such ac­cess to the same de­gree.

(Art. 6 para. 1 and 3 FoIA)

¹ The au­thor­ity shall provide in­form­a­tion to the ap­plic­ant about the of­fi­cial doc­u­ments avail­able and shall as­sist him through the pro­ced­ure, par­tic­u­larly if the ap­plic­ant is dis­abled.

² Where of­fi­cial doc­u­ments are ac­cess­ible via the In­ter­net or have been pub­lished in an of­fi­cial pub­lic­a­tion of the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment, the au­thor­ity may con­fine it­self to provid­ing ref­er­ences as to the sources where they may be found.

³ The au­thor­ity is not re­quired to trans­late of­fi­cial doc­u­ments to which ac­cess has been gran­ted in ap­plic­a­tion of the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act.

(Art. 6 para. 2 FoIA)

¹ In­spec­tion of an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment shall take place at the au­thor­ity which is re­spons­ible for pro­cessing the ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess.

² The au­thor­ity may con­fine it­self to provid­ing the ap­plic­ant with a copy of the of­fi­cial doc­u­ment for in­spec­tion.

³ The iden­tity of the ap­plic­ant may be veri­fied on en­ter­ing the premises of the au­thor­ity with­in the con­text of ex­er­cising dom­i­cil­i­ary rights by the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment pur­su­ant to Art­icle 62fof the Gov­ern­ment and Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Act of 21 March 1997⁵.

(Art. 6 para. 2 FoIA)

¹ On re­quest by the ap­plic­ant, the au­thor­ity shall provide a copy of the of­fi­cial doc­u­ment, provided that the pro­duc­tion of such cop­ies does not af­fect the phys­ic­al in­teg­rity there­of.

² If the doc­u­ment is sub­ject to copy­right, the au­thor­ity shall in­form the ap­plic­ant as to the ap­plic­able lim­it­a­tions on its use.

(Art. 7 para. 2 FoIA)

¹ Where it be­comes ap­par­ent in the eval­u­ation of an ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess that the pub­lic in­terest in ob­tain­ing such ac­cess would pre­ju­dice a third party’s right to the pro­tec­tion of pri­vacy, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity may, by way of an ex­cep­tion, grant ac­cess after hav­ing weighed up these in­terests against one an­oth­er.

² The pub­lic in­terest in gain­ing ac­cess shall out­weigh the right to pri­vacy where, in par­tic­u­lar:

a.

the grant­ing of ac­cess to a doc­u­ment serves a spe­cif­ic pub­lic in­terest in ob­tain­ing such in­form­a­tion, par­tic­u­larly due to im­port­ant events;

b.

the grant­ing of ac­cess serves to pro­tect a spe­cif­ic pub­lic in­terest, and in par­tic­u­lar the pro­tec­tion of pub­lic or­der and se­cur­ity and the pro­tec­tion of pub­lic health; or

c.

the per­son whose pri­vacy could be pre­ju­diced by ac­cess to an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment has a leg­al or fac­tu­al re­la­tion­ship with an au­thor­ity sub­ject to the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act which af­fords him sig­ni­fic­ant be­ne­fits.

(Art. 10 FoIA)

¹ An ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess to an of­fi­cial doc­u­ment may be sub­mit­ted in any form without stat­ing the grounds.

² It must be suf­fi­ciently de­tailed in or­der to al­low the au­thor­ity to identi­fy the re­ques­ted doc­u­ment. The ap­plic­ant must in­dic­ate, to the best of his abil­ity:

a.

gen­er­ally avail­able data which clearly identi­fy the doc­u­ment, such as the date of is­sue, title and ref­er­ence;

b.

a spe­cif­ic time frame;

c.

the au­thor­ity which is­sued the doc­u­ment; or

d.

the sub­ject con­cerned.

³ The au­thor­ity may re­quest the ap­plic­ant to provide fur­ther de­tails with re­gard to the ap­plic­a­tion.

⁴ If the ap­plic­ant fails to provide, with­in ten days, the ad­di­tion­al de­tails re­ques­ted in or­der to identi­fy the of­fi­cial doc­u­ment, the ap­plic­a­tion shall be deemed to have been with­drawn. The au­thor­ity shall in­form the ap­plic­ant ac­cord­ingly.

(Art. 10 para. 2 FoIA)

¹ Swiss rep­res­ent­a­tions abroad as well as Swiss mis­sions to the European Com­munit­ies and oth­er in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­isa­tions shall trans­mit ap­plic­a­tions for ac­cess con­cern­ing of­fi­cial doc­u­ments which have been is­sued or re­ceived as main ad­dress­ees by them, to the Fed­er­al De­part­ment of For­eign Af­fairs (the De­part­ment) which shall be com­pet­ent for the mat­ter there­in­after.

² The De­part­ment shall reg­u­late the com­pet­en­cies, the pro­cessing dead­lines and mod­al­it­ies of in­spec­tion.

(Art. 10 para. 4 let. a FoIA)

When pro­cessing ap­plic­a­tions filed by journ­al­ists, the au­thor­ity shall, as far as pos­sible, take ac­count of the journ­al­ist's re­port­ing dead­line.

(Art. 10 para. 4 let. c FoIA)

¹ An ap­plic­a­tion is deemed to re­quire pro­cessing where the au­thor­ity is not in a po­s­i­tion to pro­cess the ap­plic­a­tion with the hu­man and in­fra­struc­ture re­sources at its dis­pos­al without ser­i­ously com­prom­ising the ful­fil­ment of its oth­er du­ties.

² Re­quests en­tail­ing par­tic­u­larly ex­tens­ive pro­cessing shall be dealt with by an ap­pro­pri­ate dead­line.

(Art. 12 FoIA)

¹Where a doc­u­ment has been pre­pared by more than one au­thor­ity, the primary au­thor­ity shall be com­pet­ent to take a de­cision.

² Where the ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess cov­ers sev­er­al doc­u­ments con­cern­ing the same mat­ter, and which were is­sued or re­ceived by dif­fer­ent au­thor­it­ies sub­ject to the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act, the au­thor­ity in charge of the mat­ter is com­pet­ent to take a de­cision.

³ Where sev­er­al au­thor­it­ies are in charge of the mat­ter, they shall jointly de­term­ine which au­thor­ity is com­pet­ent to de­cide. The lat­ter shall take a de­cision with re­gard to the ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess, in con­sulta­tion with the oth­er au­thor­it­ies.

⁴ Where an au­thor­ity has pre­pared a doc­u­ment at the re­quest of an­oth­er au­thor­ity, the com­pet­ent au­thor­ity must con­sult the re­quest­ing au­thor­ity pri­or to tak­ing a de­cision.

⁵ Where an ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess con­cerns a clas­si­fied doc­u­ment, the com­pet­ency and the pro­ced­ure is gov­erned by the pro­vi­sions on the pro­tec­tion of in­form­a­tion and clas­si­fied doc­u­ments. The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall con­sider wheth­er the doc­u­ment may be de­clas­si­fied.

(Art. 13 FoIA)

¹ The Fed­er­al Data Pro­tec­tion and In­form­a­tion Com­mis­sion­er (the FD­PIC) shall ex­am­ine wheth­er the ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess was pro­cessed law­fully and ap­pro­pri­ately.⁶

² It shall hear the parties to me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings and strive to reach an agree­ment. Where ne­ces­sary, it shall sub­mit pro­pos­als.⁷ The pro­ceed­ings may be con­duc­ted in writ­ing or verbally.

³ The FD­PIC shall as­cer­tain the res­ult of me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings and in­form the parties of the same in writ­ing.⁸

(Art. 10 para. 4 let. c, 13 and 14 FoIA)

¹ A re­quest for me­di­ation re­quires par­tic­u­larly ex­tens­ive pro­cessing by the FD­PIC if it:¹⁰

a.

in­volves a large num­ber of or es­pe­cially com­plex doc­u­ments;

b.

raises es­pe­cially dif­fi­cult leg­al, tech­nic­al or polit­ic­al is­sues.

² If a re­quest for me­di­ation re­quires par­tic­u­larly ex­tens­ive pro­cessing by the FD­PIC, it may ex­tend the dead­line for the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings or for the is­sue of a re­com­mend­a­tion by an ap­pro­pri­ate peri­od.¹¹

(Art. 13 and 20 FoIA)

¹ As soon as a re­quest for me­di­ation is sub­mit­ted, the FD­PIC shall in­form the au­thor­ity and al­low it a peri­od with­in which to:¹³

a.

sup­ple­ment the jus­ti­fic­a­tion giv­en for its de­cision if ne­ces­sary;

b.¹⁴

provide the FD­PIC with the re­quired doc­u­ments;

c.¹⁵

provide the FD­PIC with the name of its rep­res­ent­at­ive in the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings.

² The parties are ob­liged:

a.

to as­sist in en­sur­ing com­pli­ance with the dead­line with­in which the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings must take place;

b.

to co­oper­ate in seek­ing a set­tle­ment;

c.

to par­ti­cip­ate in the me­di­ation hear­ing; the au­thor­ity shall par­ti­cip­ate in the me­di­ation hear­ing through the per­son ap­poin­ted to rep­res­ent it.

³ If the ap­plic­ant fails to par­ti­cip­ate in the me­di­ation hear­ing, the re­quest for me­di­ation shall be deemed to have been with­drawn and the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings shall be dis­missed.¹⁶

⁴ If the parties re­fuse to co­oper­ate in seek­ing a set­tle­ment or if they im­prop­erly delay the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings, the FD­PIC may rule that the me­di­ation has failed.¹⁷

(Art. 14 FoIA)

¹ In its re­com­mend­a­tion, the FD­PIC shall in par­tic­u­lar point out that the parties to the me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings may re­quest a de­cision from the au­thor­ity pur­su­ant to Art­icle 15 FoIA, and shall in­form them of the dead­line for such a re­quest.¹⁸

² The re­com­mend­a­tion must not con­tain any in­form­a­tion likely to pre­ju­dice pro­tec­ted in­terests un­der Art­icle 7(1) FoIA.

³ The FD­PIC shall pub­lish its re­com­mend­a­tions and shall take the ap­pro­pri­ate meas­ures in or­der to en­sure the pro­tec­tion of the data of nat­ur­al per­sons and leg­al en­tit­ies who are parties to me­di­ation pro­ceed­ings.¹⁹

⁴ Should the pro­tec­tion of the data men­tioned in para­graph 3 not be pos­sible, the FD­PIC shall re­frain from pub­lish­ing its re­com­mend­a­tion.²⁰

(Art. 15 and 16 FoIA)

The ad­min­is­trat­ive units of the Cent­ral Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion shall provide the FD­PIC with a copy of their rul­ing and any de­cisions made by the ap­peal in­stances.

(Art. 17 para. 2 FoIA)

¹ If the pro­cessing of an ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess by the au­thor­ity re­quires more than 8 hours’ work, a fee may be charged. The fee shall be cal­cu­lated based on the num­ber of hours worked in ex­cess of 8 hours.

² In­so­far as this Or­din­ance does not con­tain spe­cif­ic rules, the pro­vi­sions of the Gen­er­al Fees Or­din­ance of 8 Septem­ber 2004²³ ap­ply.

(Art. 17 para. 2 FoIA)²⁴

¹ The au­thor­ity shall waive fees where the cost of col­lect­ing them would ex­ceed the fee amount. Fees of less than 100 francs shall not be charged.

² Costs which res­ult ex­clus­ively from meet­ing the spe­cial needs of dis­abled per­sons are not factored in­to the cal­cu­la­tion of fees.

³ The au­thor­ity may waive or re­duce fees where it denies an ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess or only grants par­tial ac­cess.

⁴ If the au­thor­ity charges a fee for an ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess made by a journ­al­ist, it shall re­duce this fee by 50 per cent.²⁵

(Art. 17 para. 3 FoIA)²⁶

¹ The sched­ule of fees is set out in An­nex 1.

² On in­form­ing the ap­plic­ant that it is in­ten­ded to charge a fee, the au­thor­ity shall al­low the ap­plic­ant 10 days with­in which to con­firm that ap­plic­a­tion for ac­cess. If no con­firm­a­tion is re­ceived, the ap­plic­a­tion shall be deemed to be with­drawn. The au­thor­ity shall in­form the ap­plic­ant ac­cord­ingly.²⁷

(Art. 21 let. a FoIA)

The pro­cessing of of­fi­cial doc­u­ments, and in par­tic­u­lar their re­gis­tra­tion, is gov­erned by Art­icle 22 of the Gov­ern­ment and the Ad­min­is­tra­tion Or­gan­isa­tion Or­din­ance of 25 Novem­ber 1998²⁸, as well as by the pro­vi­sions en­acted by the com­pet­ent de­part­ment in ap­plic­a­tion of the fed­er­al le­gis­la­tion gov­ern­ing the archiv­ing of doc­u­ments.

(Art. 21 let. b FoIA)

In the ab­sence of any le­gis­lat­ive pro­vi­sions to the con­trary, the au­thor­it­ies shall in­form the pub­lic about of­fi­cial doc­u­ments in the fol­low­ing way:

a.

they shall pub­lish, on the In­ter­net, in­form­a­tion as to their func­tions and im­port­ant mat­ters for which they are re­spons­ible;

b.

they shall make avail­able fur­ther in­form­a­tion, as ap­pro­pri­ate, which may fa­cil­it­ate the iden­ti­fic­a­tion of of­fi­cial doc­u­ments, in­so­far as do­ing so does not give rise to ex­cess­ive costs.

(Art. 21 let. c FoIA)

The com­pet­ent au­thor­ity shall pub­lish im­port­ant of­fi­cial doc­u­ments on the In­ter­net as soon as pos­sible, where:

a.

this does not give rise to ex­cess­ive costs; and

b.

pub­lic­a­tion on the In­ter­net does not con­flict with any stat­utory pro­vi­sions.

The Fed­er­al Of­fice and the de­part­ments shall des­ig­nate at least one ad­visor for the im­ple­ment­a­tion of the prin­ciple of free­dom of in­form­a­tion. The ad­visor shall have the fol­low­ing du­ties:

a.

ad­vising the ad­min­is­trat­ive units, per­sons and or­gan­isa­tions out­side the Fed­er­al Ad­min­is­tra­tion, sub­ject to the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act;

b.

dis­sem­in­at­ing in­form­a­tion and train­ing staff;

c.

par­ti­cip­at­ing in the im­ple­ment­a­tion of le­gis­la­tion on the prin­ciple of free­dom of in­form­a­tion.

Each au­thor­ity shall in­form the FD­PIC, on an an­nu­al basis, of:²⁹

a.

the num­ber of ap­plic­a­tions for ac­cess filed dur­ing the re­port­ing year;

b.

the num­ber of such ap­plic­a­tions gran­ted, re­fused or partly re­fused;

c^.30

the total amount of fees charged for ac­cess to pub­lic doc­u­ments sought un­der the Free­dom of In­form­a­tion Act and the num­ber of cases in which a fee was charged.

Amend­ments to ex­ist­ing le­gis­la­tion are reg­u­lated in An­nex 2.

Re­quests for me­di­ation that were sub­mit­ted be­fore the Amend­ment of 20 April 2011 comes in­to force are gov­erned by the pre­vi­ous law.

This Or­din­ance comes in­to force on 1 Ju­ly 2006.