Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Privacy Act 2020

Complaints, investigations, and proceedings - Investigations by Commissioner

83: Exploring possibility of settlement and assurance during investigation

You could also call this:

"Trying to fix the problem and prevent it from happening again during an investigation"

Illustration for Privacy Act 2020

When you make a complaint, the Commissioner might try to settle it during the investigation. They will try to get the agency to agree to a settlement and to promise that they will not do the same thing again. The Commissioner wants to make sure the agency does not repeat the action that led to your complaint.

The Commissioner can also ask the agency to promise not to do something similar in the future. This can happen at any time during the investigation, even if you did not ask for it. The Commissioner is trying to stop the same problem from happening again, and you can see how this rule is similar to an older rule, which you can find at the Privacy Act 1986.

The Commissioner can do this even if they started the investigation themselves, not just because you made a complaint. They will try to get the agency to promise that they will not repeat the action that led to the investigation. This helps to prevent the same problem from happening again.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS142384.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Anti-discriminationRights and equality > PrivacyGovernment and voting > Government departments
Previous

82: Commissioner may regulate own procedure, or

"The Commissioner can create their own rules for investigations as long as they follow the law."

Next

84: Referral of complaint to Director without completing investigation, or

"The Commissioner can pass your complaint to the Director without a full investigation if they can't resolve it with the agency."

Part 5Complaints, investigations, and proceedings
Investigations by Commissioner

83Exploring possibility of settlement and assurance during investigation

  1. At any time during an investigation of a complaint, the Commissioner may decide to use best endeavours to—

  2. secure a settlement of the complaint; and
    1. if appropriate, secure a satisfactory assurance from the agency whose action is the subject of the complaint that there will not be a repetition of the action that gave rise to the complaint, or of any similar kind of action.

      1. At any time during an investigation being conducted on the Commissioner’s own initiative, the Commissioner may decide to use best endeavours to secure a satisfactory assurance from the respondent that there will not be a repetition of the action that gave rise to the investigation, or of a similar kind of action.

      Compare