Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill passes first reading
Hon Judith
Collins
Minister of Justice
8 February 2012
Media Statement
Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill
passes first reading
Justice Minister Judith Collins has welcomed the first reading of a bill to improve information sharing between public service agencies.
Ms Collins said the Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill will improve the rules around the collection, storage, and use of personal information while ensuring there are safeguards in place to protect an individual’s right to privacy.
“The Government wants to ensure public service providers can share personal information when it is needed to address ‘serious’ threats to public health or safety, or when the life or health of individuals, including children, is threatened. Currently, the threat must also be ‘imminent’ for the information to be shared.
“This change will allow medical professionals, social workers, Police, civil defence and many other key service providers to share information to help protect the lives and wellbeing of vulnerable people.
“Agencies are already able to share personal information under the Privacy Act, however, the Act itself is unclear and can be misunderstood around when and how personal information can be shared.
“By providing agencies with more certainty, they can share information in better and smarter ways. Improved information sharing has major benefits in allowing agencies to see a complete picture of an individual’s situation,” Ms Collins said.
The bill:
• inserts a new mechanism
into the Privacy Act to allow for the approval of agreements
for the sharing of information between agencies,
and
• creates a process for drawing up
information-sharing agreements in consultation with the
Privacy Commissioner, which would be approved by Order in
Council. The bill specifies the criteria for approval and
the matters that need to be covered in the agreements and
general rules for the operation of such agreements,
including appropriate safeguards and suitable transparency,
accountability, and review processes.
The bill is also expected to save information-handling costs across government and encourage agencies to work together to examine and understand the needs of the public.
“We are working to make public services better and smarter by finding new ways of doing things. Service delivery is moving toward better cooperation between Government agencies and community, local government and private sector providers,” Ms Collins said.
The bill has been referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee for consideration.
ENDS
Questions and
answers:
Will the bill lead to a more
intrusive government presence in people’s
lives?
The Government is satisfied that the bill
has appropriate safeguards in place to protect a person’s
right to privacy. In particular, the information-sharing
agreements are still required to comply with some
information privacy principles and will have to specify
safeguards that will protect the privacy of individuals and
ensure that any interference with their privacy is
minimised.
The Privacy Commissioner will have an
oversight role to ensure that limitations on personal
privacy are minimised and will be able to alert the public
if she considers privacy is not being adequately
safeguarded.
What is the Privacy Commissioner’s
role in drawing up information-sharing
agreements?
When drawing up information-sharing
agreements, agencies must consult the Privacy Commissioner.
The commissioner may report to the relevant Minister before
agreements are approved, and the Minister must take the
report into account before agreements are finalised.
The
commissioner will have the power to publish a report about
an agreement after it is approved, and will be able to
report on the operation of an agreement if he or she feels
something is going wrong. The report can be presented to the
House of Representatives, and the Government will have an
obligation to respond.
Does the bill allow
private sector agencies to share information with each
other?
Private sector agencies can become
parties to information-sharing agreements and share
information in the course of delivering public services. A
government department must always be a party to an
information-sharing agreement and is ultimately responsible
for the conduct of a private services provider delivering
public services.
What will happen if a public
service provider breaches an information-sharing
agreement?
A complaint can be made to the
Privacy Commissioner which may result in an investigation
under the Privacy Act’s existing complaints process. A
complaint could also be made to the
Ombudsman.
How will the Government ensure that
non-government organisations can be trusted to protect
individual privacy?
Government agencies will
enter into information sharing agreements only with
non-government organisations that they believe are
trustworthy. In addition, if a private sector agency is
unable to be held to account for a complaint about alleged
interference with privacy, then a government agency will be
responsible for dealing with the complaint.
How
will the Privacy Act be amended to allow agencies to share
information at an earlier stage?
Exemptions to
information privacy principles contained in the Privacy Act
(that information should be collected from only the
individual concerned and that information collected for one
purpose should not be used for another) will be widened to
allow for personal information to be shared in circumstances
where there is a ‘serious’ threat to public health or
safety, of the life or health of an individual. Currently,
the threat has to be ‘serious and imminent’ to allow the
information to be shared.
Can an
information-sharing agreement override all privacy
protections?
Agreements can override only the
information privacy principles (except for principles 6 and
7 which provide an individual’s right to access
information about themselves and request corrections of that
information). Agreements cannot override other legislation.
Can members of classes of parties join
information-sharing agreements?
Information
sharing agreements may include clauses that specify that
members of a class of agencies can, after it is approved,
join the agreement. No further approval will be required,
but the lead agency will need to update the agreement on its
website. The new agency would have the same rights and
obligations as any other party to the agreement.
For
example, an information-sharing agreement could specify that
‘schools registered under the Education Act’ be added to
the agreement to share truancy information with CYF. The
lead agency could then add the names of specific high
schools to the schedule.