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Privacy Act 2020

Preliminary provisions - Interpretation and related matters

10: Personal information held by agency if held by officer, employee, or member of agency

You could also call this:

“Agency responsibility for personal information held by its workers or members”

When someone who works for or is part of an agency has personal information, it’s treated as if the agency itself has that information. This means the agency is responsible for that information.

There are some exceptions to this rule. If you work for a public agency but have information because of your connection to a private agency, and that connection isn’t part of your job at the public agency, then the public agency isn’t responsible for that information. Similarly, if you work for a private agency but have information because of your connection to another agency (public or private), and that connection isn’t part of your job at the private agency, then your private agency isn’t responsible for that information.

There’s a special rule for people who work in a department but do tasks for a departmental agency. In this case, any information they have is treated as if the departmental agency has it, not the department.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23315.

Topics:

Rights and equality > Privacy

Government and voting > Government departments

9: Meaning of overseas agency, or

“Definition of an overseas agency and who isn't considered one”

11: Personal information treated as being held by another agency in certain circumstances, or

“Agencies holding information for others are not considered the holders unless they use it themselves”

Part 1 Preliminary provisions
Interpretation and related matters

10Personal information held by agency if held by officer, employee, or member of agency

For the purposes of this Act, personal information held by a person in the person’s capacity as an officer, an employee, or a member of an agency is to be treated as being held by the agency.
However, subsection (1) does not apply to—
personal information held by an officer, an employee, or a member of a public sector agency (A) if—
1. the information is held only because of the person’s connection with a private sector agency; and
2. that connection is not in the person’s capacity as an officer, an employee, or a member of A; or
personal information held by an officer, an employee, or a member of a private sector agency (B) if—
1. the information is held only because of the person’s connection with another agency (whether a public sector agency or private sector agency); and
2. that connection is not in the person’s capacity as an officer, an employee, or a member of B.

Despite subsection (1), information that is held by an employee of a department carrying out the functions of a departmental agency must be treated for the purposes of this Act as held by the departmental agency.

Compare

1993 No 28 s 3(1)–(3)

Notes

Section 10(3): inserted, on 7 August 2020, by section 126 of the Public Service Act 2020 (2020 No 40).