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Immigration Act 2009

Core provisions and matters in relation to decision making - Reliance on classified information in decision making

41: Declassification of classified information

You could also call this:

“How the government can make secret immigration information public”

If you’re involved in an immigration decision or case, sometimes the government uses secret information. This information is called “classified information”. The government might decide to make this secret information not secret anymore. This is called “declassification”.

When the government uses classified information to make a decision about you, and then they declassify it during the process, it changes how they can use that information. From the day it’s declassified, they don’t have to follow the special rules for secret information anymore.

The boss of the government department decides when to declassify information. They write a note saying that from a certain date, the information isn’t classified anymore. They use the definition of classified information from section 7 of this law to decide this.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1440641.

Topics:
Immigration and citizenship > Visas
Immigration and citizenship > Border control
Government and voting > Government departments
Rights and equality > Privacy
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40: Where classified information may be relied on without requirement for summary or reasons, or

“When secret information can be used without giving you details or reasons”

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42: No right of complaint to Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, or

“You can't complain to the Inspector-General about decisions involving classified information”

Part 2 Core provisions and matters in relation to decision making
Reliance on classified information in decision making

41Declassification of classified information

  1. Subsection (2) applies to classified information if—

  2. it is relied on, or may be relied on, to make a decision or determine proceedings under this Act; and
    1. during the process of making the decision or determining the proceedings, the information is declassified.

      1. As from the date of declassification, the information is no longer subject to any of the confidentiality, process, or other requirements of this Act that apply to classified information or the users of the information.

      2. For the purposes of this section, information is declassified when the chief executive of the relevant agency certifies in writing that, as from a specified date, the classified information concerned is no longer classified information within the meaning of section 7.