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Search and Surveillance Act 2012

Enforcement officers' powers and orders - Preservation directions - Preservation directions: making, duration, and other matters

79G: Form and content of preservation direction

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"What to Do When You Get a Preservation Direction"

Illustration for Search and Surveillance Act 2012

When you get a preservation direction, it must be in a certain form. You must preserve documents described in the direction while it is in force. You must also produce records of pathway information to the enforcement officer or a person identified in the direction. You will be told what documents to preserve and what records to produce. The direction must say who it is against and why it was made. If you need to produce records, you will be told how and when to do it. The direction might describe documents or records by a class or category. If the direction is against a company or organisation, it might say who must comply with it. You might need to tell the enforcement officer where documents are if you do not have them.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1528022.

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79F: Commissioner may make preservation direction, or

"The Commissioner can give a direction to keep information safe under certain conditions."

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Part 3Enforcement officers' powers and orders
Preservation directions: Preservation directions: making, duration, and other matters

79GForm and content of preservation direction

  1. A preservation direction must be in the prescribed form, if any, and must require the person against whom it is made (the directly affected person)—

  2. to preserve, while the direction is in force, any documents described in the direction that are in the possession or under the control of the directly affected person; and
    1. to produce to the enforcement officer who applied for the direction, or a person identified in the direction, any record of pathway information described in the direction that is in the possession or under the control of the directly affected person; and
      1. if any of the documents (including any record of pathway information) described in the direction are not, or are no longer, in the possession or under the control of the directly affected person, to disclose (by the time, if any, specified in the direction and to the best of that person’s knowledge or belief) the location of those documents to—
        1. the enforcement officer who applied for the direction; or
          1. a person identified in the direction.

          2. A preservation direction must specify—

          3. the name of the directly affected person; and
            1. the grounds on which the direction is made.

              1. If the preservation direction requires the directly affected person to produce any record of pathway information,—

              2. the preservation direction must also specify the way in which, and a time by which, the record must be produced; and
                1. that time must not be any earlier than a time on the tenth day after the date on which the direction is given to the directly affected person.

                  1. A preservation direction may describe any documents required to be preserved by reference to a class or category of document.

                  2. A preservation direction may describe any record of pathway information required to be produced by reference to a class or category of record.

                  3. If a preservation direction is made against a body corporate or an unincorporated body, the direction may specify an individual (whether by name or by reference to a position held in the body) who must comply with the direction as the body’s representative.

                  Notes
                  • Section 79G: inserted, on , by section 19 of the Budapest Convention and Related Matters Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 39).