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Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1992

Requests to New Zealand - Requests for surveillance device warrants - Dealing with material collected under warrant

50T: Destruction or retention of other raw surveillance data, etc, that remains in New Zealand

You could also call this:

"What happens to extra surveillance information collected in New Zealand"

Illustration for Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act 1992

You collect information under a special permit. This information is called raw surveillance data. If it is not needed as evidence for a crime in New Zealand and not being sent to another country as per section 50R(1), it must be deleted. You have to delete this data after a certain time, which is 5 years. But if the Attorney-General gives a direction under section 50Q before this time, you might have to keep it or delete it earlier. The 5-year time starts when the data is collected. There are rules about what data to keep and what to delete, and these rules are explained in other parts of the law, such as section 50S, which explains what specified evidential material is.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS1524502.

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50S: Retention and destruction of raw surveillance data, etc, that is specified evidential material relating to New Zealand offence, or

"Rules for keeping or destroying crime information gathered by surveillance in New Zealand"

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Part 3Requests to New Zealand
Requests for surveillance device warrants: Dealing with material collected under warrant

50TDestruction or retention of other raw surveillance data, etc, that remains in New Zealand

  1. This section applies to the extent that any of the material collected under the surveillance device warrant is raw surveillance data that—

  2. is not specified evidential material relating to a New Zealand offence; and
    1. is not the subject of a direction referred to in section 50R(1) (relating to sending material to a foreign country).

      1. The Commissioner must ensure that the raw surveillance data, excerpts from that data, and information obtained from that data are deleted or erased as soon as practicable after the prescribed period for the data ends.

      2. Subsection (2) does not apply to the data, excerpts, or information to the extent that a direction given by the Attorney-General under section 50Q before the prescribed period ends requires the Commissioner—

      3. to delete or erase the data, excerpts, or information before the prescribed period ends; or
        1. to keep the data, excerpts, or information after the prescribed period ends.

          1. In this section,—

            prescribed period, in relation to raw surveillance data that is collected under a surveillance device warrant, means the period of 5 years that starts on the day on which the raw surveillance data is collected under the warrant

              specified evidential material, in relation to a New Zealand offence, has the meaning given to it in section 50S.

              Notes
              • Section 50T: inserted, on , by section 40 of the Budapest Convention and Related Matters Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 39).