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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Privacy Act 2020

Sharing, accessing, and matching personal information - Information sharing

143: Lead agency

You could also call this:

"The agency in charge of keeping your personal information safe when it's shared is called the lead agency."

Illustration for Privacy Act 2020

When you hear about sharing personal information, you might wonder which agency is in charge. In this case, a specified agency can be a public sector agency, part of one, or a specified organisation. The agency in charge is called the lead agency.

If only one agency is involved in an information sharing agreement, that agency must be the lead agency. When there are two or more agencies involved, they can decide together which one will be the lead agency. You can find more information about this by looking at the related legislation.

This law is part of the Privacy Act 2020, which helps keep your personal information safe. You can learn more about how agencies share and protect your information by reading about the act. The lead agency has important responsibilities when it comes to your personal information.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23575.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Privacy
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142: Agreement may apply to classes of agencies, or

"A single agreement can cover many agencies at once, not just individual ones."

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144: Form and content of information sharing agreement, or

"What to include when writing an agreement to share personal information"

Part 7Sharing, accessing, and matching personal information
Information sharing

143Lead agency

  1. In this section, specified agency means—

  2. a public sector agency that is a department; or
    1. part of a public sector agency that is a department; or
      1. a specified organisation.

        1. If only 1 specified agency is a party to an information sharing agreement, that agency must be designated as the lead agency for the agreement.

        2. If 2 or more specified agencies are parties to an information sharing agreement, the parties to the agreement may agree between themselves which of the specified agencies is to be designated as the lead agency.

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