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Privacy Act 2020

Sharing, accessing, and matching personal information - Identity information

168: Power to amend Schedule 3 by Order in Council

You could also call this:

“Government can change rules about agencies sharing identity information”

The Governor-General can change Schedule 3 by making an Order in Council. This can be done after the responsible Minister recommends it and talks to the Privacy Commissioner. The changes can include adding, removing, changing, or replacing items in Schedule 3. They can even replace the whole schedule with a new one.

Before suggesting changes that let an agency access identity information from another agency, the responsible Minister needs to make sure of three things. First, the reason for accessing the information must be related to the accessing agency’s job. Second, the agency should only access the information it really needs. Third, any problems between sharing this information and other laws must be sorted out.

When the Governor-General makes these changes, it’s called secondary legislation. This means it follows special rules about how it’s published, which you can find in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23614.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Privacy
Government and voting > Government departments
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“Agencies must report yearly on how they handle personal information”

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“Explaining why some government agencies can access certain people's law enforcement information”

Part 7 Sharing, accessing, and matching personal information
Identity information

168Power to amend Schedule 3 by Order in Council

  1. The Governor-General may, by Order in Council made on the recommendation of the responsible Minister given after consultation with the Privacy Commissioner, amend Schedule 3 by—

  2. inserting, repealing, amending, or replacing any item in Schedule 3; or
    1. repealing Schedule 3 and substituting a new schedule.

      1. Before recommending the making of an Order in Council facilitating access by an accessing agency to identity information held by a holder agency, the responsible Minister must be satisfied that—

      2. the purpose for which the identity information is to be accessed relates to a specified function of the accessing agency; and
        1. the identity information to be accessed is no more than is reasonably necessary to enable the accessing agency to achieve that purpose; and
          1. any potential conflicts or inconsistencies between the sharing of personal information under Schedule 3 and any other enactment have been identified and appropriately addressed.

            1. An order under this section is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

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            Notes
            • Section 168(3): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).