Forms of access

(1) Access to a document may be given to a person in one or more of the following forms, (a) a reasonable opportunity to inspect the (b) provision by the Ministry or prescribed authority of a copy of the document; (c) in the case of a document that is an article or thing from which sounds or visual images are capable of being reproduced, the making of arrangements for the person to hear or view those sounds or visual images; (d) in the case of a document by which words are recorded in a manner in which they are capable of being reproduced in the form of sound or in which words are contained in the form of shorthand writing or in codified form, provision by the Ministry or prescribed authority of a written transcript of the words recorded or contained in the document. (2) Subject to subsection (3) of this section and to section 19 of this Act, where the applicant has requested access in a particular form, access shall be given in that form. (3) If the form of access requested by the applicant, (a) would interfere unreasonably with the operations of the Ministry or prescribed authority; 18 (b) would be detrimental to the preservation of the document or, having regard to the physical nature of the document, would not be appropriate; or (c) would involve an infringement of copyright (other than copyright owned by the Government) subsisting in the document, access in that form may be refused and access given in another form. access.