(1)  A public authority or a Minister may defer providing information if –

(a) a decision has been made before receipt of the application for assessed disclosure of information that the information will be disclosed as a required disclosure or routine disclosure of information within a period of time specified by the public authority or Minister but not exceeding 12 months from the date of the application; or

(b) the information was prepared for presentation to Parliament, or has been designated by the responsible Minister as appropriate for presentation to Parliament, but is yet to be presented.

(2)  If the provision of information is deferred, the public authority or Minister must, when informing the applicant of the reason for the deferral, indicate as far as practicable, when the information will be published or presented.

(3)  A public authority or a Minister has no power under subsection (1)(b) to defer providing information when more than 15 sitting-days of either House of Parliament have passed since the information was presented to the Minister for the purpose of being presented to Parliament.