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Epidemic Preparedness Act 2006

Immediate modification of statutory requirements and restrictions

14: Immediate modification of statutory requirements and restrictions to facilitate management of quarantinable disease

You could also call this:

"Changing rules to help manage a serious disease during an epidemic"

Illustration for Epidemic Preparedness Act 2006

When there is an epidemic notice, the Governor-General can change rules to help manage a quarantinable disease. You need to know the Minister of Health can only recommend these changes if the Director-General of Health says they are necessary. The Director-General must put this in writing. The changes to the rules can be absolute or have conditions, and can be made in different ways. You can comply with the rules in alternative ways, or the rules can be replaced with discretionary powers. This means the person in charge can decide what to do. An order to change the rules is called secondary legislation, see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for more information about publication requirements.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM404494.

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15: Immediate modification of statutory requirements and restrictions to enable compliance during epidemic, or

"Changing rules to help you follow them during an epidemic"

14Immediate modification of statutory requirements and restrictions to facilitate management of quarantinable disease

  1. While an epidemic notice is in force, the Governor-General may, by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister of Health, modify any requirement or restriction imposed by any enactment administered by the Ministry of Health.

  2. The Minister of Health must not recommend the making of an order except on a written recommendation of the Director-General of Health, stating that, in the Director-General’s opinion, the modifications it makes are or are likely to be necessary to enable the effective management of the quarantinable disease stated in the epidemic notice or its effects (or both).

  3. A modification of a requirement or restriction—

  4. may be absolute or subject to conditions; and
    1. may be made—
      1. by stating alternative means of complying with the requirement or restriction; or
        1. by substituting a discretionary power for the requirement or restriction.

        2. Subsection (3) does not limit subsection (1).

        3. An order under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

        Notes
        • Section 14(5): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).