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Privacy Act 2020

Complaints, investigations, and proceedings - Proceedings before Human Rights Review Tribunal - Miscellaneous

109: Proceedings involving access to personal information

You could also call this:

“How the Tribunal handles complaints about access to your personal information”

If you complain about an agency refusing to give you access to your personal information, or if an agency appeals a decision that tells them to give you access, the Tribunal can look into it. The Tribunal is a special group that helps solve these kinds of problems.

To figure out if the agency is right to refuse access, the Tribunal can do two things. They can ask the agency to show them your personal information, but only the Tribunal members can see it. The Tribunal can also let the agency give evidence and talk about the case without you, your lawyer, or anyone else there.

The Tribunal will only do these things if it’s really necessary. They’ll only do it to protect the reasons the agency gave for not letting you see your information.

Remember, this is all part of the rules in section 97, section 98, and section 105 of the law. These rules are there to help make sure your personal information is handled fairly.

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 It might be out of date or be missing some parts.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

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS143227.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Privacy
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Part 5 Complaints, investigations, and proceedings
Proceedings before Human Rights Review Tribunal: Miscellaneous

109Proceedings involving access to personal information

  1. This section applies if—

  2. proceedings are commenced in the Tribunal under section 97 or 98 in respect of a complaint about a decision made by an agency under subpart 1 of Part 4 to refuse access to personal information; or
    1. an appeal is lodged in the Tribunal under section 105 against an access direction directing an agency to provide access to personal information.

      1. During the proceedings the Tribunal may, for the purpose of determining whether the agency may properly refuse access to personal information, do either or both of the following:

      2. require the agency to produce the personal information to the members of the Tribunal, but to no other person:
        1. allow the agency to give evidence and make submissions in the absence of—
          1. other parties; and
            1. all lawyers (if any) representing those other parties; and
              1. all members of the public.

              2. However, the Tribunal may only exercise the powers in subsection (2) if it is necessary to do so to avoid compromising the matters that the agency considers justify refusing access to the personal information.