Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

 Plain Language Law homepage
Back to
158: Review of operation of approved information sharing agreement
or “Check how information sharing agreements are working”
You could also call this:

“Commissioner may report review findings and recommend changes or cancellation”

After the Commissioner checks an approved information sharing agreement, they might write a report for the Minister if they think something is not right. The Commissioner can do this if they believe the agreement is working in an unexpected way, not helping with public services, invading people’s privacy too much, or if sharing information costs more than it helps.

In the report, the Commissioner can suggest two things. They can say the agreement should be changed in important ways. Or, they can say the agreement should be cancelled completely.

You can find more information about the review process in section 158.

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 It might be out of date or be missing some parts.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

Next up: 160: Relevant Minister must present copy of report under section 159(1) and report setting out Government's response to House of Representatives

or “Minister must present Commissioner's report and Government's response to Parliament”
Next

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

159Report on findings of review

  1. After completing a review under section 158, the Commissioner may provide a report to the relevant Minister if the Commissioner has reasonable grounds to suspect that an approved information sharing agreement is—

  2. operating in an unusual or unexpected way (that is, in a way that was not foreseen by the Commissioner or the parties to the agreement at the time the agreement was entered into):
    1. failing to facilitate the provision of the public service or public services to which it relates:
      1. unreasonably impinging on the privacy of individuals:
        1. operating in such a way that the financial and other costs of sharing personal information under the agreement outweigh the benefits of sharing it.

          1. The Commissioner may recommend in the report that—

          2. the agreement should be amended in 1 or more material respects; or
            1. the Order in Council by which the agreement was approved should be revoked.

              Compare