My experience has been that it really does make a difference what the messages are from the top of each organization. We will issue our annual report at the end of, probably mid-June. There is a case in point in there where we had an institution that had incredible delays in responding to the access requests. We had been in there a couple of times. I had assurances from the head of the organization, and yet the situation remained the same. Recently there was a change in leadership and the person immediately took action. I'm very confident that in the entire organization there will be a complete turnaround. So it makes a huge difference.
In my office, people are really not allowed to go on deemed refusal, as you can imagine, in answering access to information requests. Our average time for responding to access requests is something along 16 days, and yes, sometimes we do take extensions. People have very clear marching orders. That makes a huge difference.
That said, if you have a legislative framework that has been in existence for over 30 years and is very lax in its provisions, then it perpetuates the ability to have delays within institutions. There are no consequences whatsoever, really. You need a legislative framework that is also providing the discipline necessary, a framework within which people will function.
But yes, ultimately it really comes from the leadership at the top.