The OICS has a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice under which the Department responds to a draft report within five weeks. In 2023-24 the Inspector reported that "For the nine reports we published this year, none of the responses from the Department were received within the five-week period and the average time for a response was 11.3 weeks."
The pattern held. Of 20 inspection reports from 2023 to 2026 that record the Department's response date, 19 responses were late (calc). For the Albany report in January 2025 the key dates record the Department's response as "Not received at time of publication". The Department's median response time has improved, from about nine weeks to about seven (calc). It is still not five.
Sources: OICS Annual Report 2023-24 p 3; Report 157 (Albany Regional Prison), key dates; key dates pages of Reports 150 to 171.