59 Lisbeth Adserballe Head of Division Lise Puggard Special Legal Advisor It is not easy to understand the provisions for access to public files. Even among professionals, the Access to Public Administration Files Act is considered complex. But one area which is especially troublesome is extraction. That is the exercise of assessing whether a document, which can otherwise be kept confidential, contains information about the factual grounds for a case, etc. Normally, the authorities are obliged to extract and give access to such information. In practice, it is mostly done by the authorities blocking out with a marker pen the information which is not to be extracted. Extraction means that the authorities extract certain data from a document and give access to that information even if the document is basically confidential. In practice, this is mostly done by the authorities blocking out with a marker pen the information which is not to be extracted. At the Ombudsman institution, we often find that the authorities struggle to extract information correctly. Still, not only the authorities find it difficult. Extracting causes much fundamental deliberation and debate at the Ombudsman institution as well. That was the situation with the previous Access to Public Administration Files Act, and it still is. However, it is fair to say that the problem has grown because the actual extraction exercise now has to be applied to more types of documents; not least documents that fall within the new regulation on ministerial advice and assistance in section 24 of the Access to Public Administration Files Act. A LOOK AT THE PROVISIONS It is section 28(1), first sentence, of the Access to Public Administration Files Act that establishes the authorities’ obligation to give access to information about the factual grounds for a case. Also if the document is basically confidential.