Applicants are being asked to agree to the extension “as a matter of routine”, with these 45 days additional to the 20-day response period set under territory law.

Earlier this year the ACT introduced legislative reforms, spearheaded by the ACT Greens, aimed at making the freedom of information process more efficient and transparent.

The Freedom of Information Act governs public access to government information.

In response to an information request from Fairfax Media, the Community Services Directorate said on Friday it was struggling to meet statutory timeframes for the release of documents.

“As a matter of routine, the directorate is seeking an additional 45 working days to process all requests under Section 41 of the FOI Act 2016,” an information officer said.

“Should you agree, please be assured the directorate would endeavour to process your access application as soon as practicable.”

Government statistics for 2016-17 showed the Community Services Directorate answered 52 information requests within the 30-day timeframe.

However, 41 requests took more than 30 days to answer, with seven of these requests taking 91 days or longer to answer.

Of the 122 requests for information received by the Community Services Directorate in 2016-17, full access to unredacted documents was only granted in eight cases.

In announcing freedom of information reforms earlier this year, ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said they would “empower the community with a new level of access to government information”.

“These new mechanisms are backed-up by new time frames for processing requests, the capping of fees, and a new role for the ombudsman to independently review agency decisions not to release information,” Mr Rattenbury said.

Introduced under the reforms was an open access information scheme, which aimed to proactively release certain types of information to the public.

“The community is crying out for more transparency from government and this is a really strong way to improve this, without putting people through the formalities of an FOI request,” Mr Rattenbury said.

Diaries outlining each minister’s meetings and commitments must be proactively released under the law. But so far no ministerial diary has been published under the open access push. An ACT government spokesman said this would change soon.

“Details are being finalised to enable all ministers’ diary reports for the first three months of the calendar year to be publically available in the coming weeks,” the spokesman said.

Gifts and hospitality databases are not listed as documents required to be made publicly available as open access information under the Freedom of Information Act.

However, Canberrans may soon be able to access these registers without making a formal request, after the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate said it was “currently investigating proactively publishing gift/hospitality registers in future”.

No timeframe for the change was provided.