Use of information gathered under the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 10) 2021
New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health
The request was partially successful.
From: New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
Dear Ministry of Health,
This is a request under the Official Information Act. A similar request has been made to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, so for the avoidance of doubt we are seeking the information held by the Ministry that it can make decisions on, and does not need to transfer any part of this request to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties is concerned that the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Alert Level Requirements) Order (No 10) 2021 (the Order) does not provide that information gathered from members of the public about their visits to workplaces under the provisions of the Order may only be used for the purpose of contact tracing. Without such protection, we are concerned that the Police or other organisations may use this information for law enforcement or other purposes. We are not satisfied by verbal assurances provided by Ministers and officials as we have seen similar assurances disregarded by the police in Singapore and some Australian states.
We are also concerned that the Order does not require workplaces to use ballot box style tools for people drop slips of paper with their contact details into, instead permitting the continued use of open registers.
We are also concerned that clause 11(2)(a) of the Order does not require destruction of the record after 60 days, only ‘disposal’.
We therefore request information held by the Ministry (including unrecorded information known to the relevant Ministry officials) about:
a) Consideration of, advice on, or responses to communications received from third parties about statutory limitations on the use of contact record information provided by members of the public to a workplace; and
b) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 January 2021 about mandating the provision and collection of contact information from members of the public when they visit a workplace; and
c) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 January 2021 on limitations on the use of contact record information provided by members of the public to a workplace; and
d) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 March 2020 on privacy protection for contact record information provided by members of the public to a workplace; and
e) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 March 2020 on police, intelligence and security agency, or public service department access to information provided by the public to organisations undertaking contact tracing for Covid-19 public health purposes; and
f) All advice on the retention and disposal of contact records by workplaces since 1 January 2021 that informed the drafting of clause 11(2) of the Order.
The Council believes the strong public interest in accountability for advice and internal discussion of issues pertaining to privacy and extraordinary state powers to record and trace information about the movement of people outweighs any grounds for withholding information under the section 9 withholding grounds.
If the Ministry decides to withhold any information in response to this request we further request, under section 19(a)(ii) of the OIA that the Department provide the specific reasons for citing each withholding ground.
Yours sincerely,
The New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora,
Thank you for your request for official information received on 10
September 2021 for:
" a) Consideration of, advice on, or responses to communications
received from third parties about statutory limitations on the use of
contact record information provided by members of the public to a
workplace; and
b) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 January 2021 about
mandating the provision and collection of contact information from members
of the public when they visit a workplace; and
c) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 January 2021 on
limitations on the use of contact record information provided by members
of the public to a workplace; and
d) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 March 2020 on
privacy protection for contact record information provided by members of
the public to a workplace; and
e) Advice to Ministers or senior officials since 1 March 2020 on
police, intelligence and security agency, or public service department
access to information provided by the public to organisations undertaking
contact tracing for Covid-19 public health purposes; and
f) All advice on the retention and disposal of contact records by
workplaces since 1 January 2021 that informed the drafting of clause 11(2)
of the Order.”
The Ministry's reference number for your request is: H202112129.
As required under the Official Information Act 1982, the Ministry will
endeavour to respond to your request no later than 8 October 2021, being
20 working days after the day your request was received.
Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Ministry is experiencing
significantly higher volumes of queries and requests for information. If
we are unable to respond to your request within this time frame, we will
notify you of an extension of that time frame.
If you have any queries related to this request, please do not hesitate to
get in touch.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services
Government Services
Office of the Director-General
Ministry of Health
E: [1][email address]
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If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate,
distribute or copy this message or attachments.
If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender
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From: OIA Requests
Kia ora New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties
Please find attached a letter regarding your request for information.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services
Government Services
Office of the Director-General
Ministry of Health
E: [1][email address]
****************************************************************************
Statement of confidentiality: This e-mail message and any accompanying
attachments may contain information that is IN-CONFIDENCE and subject to
legal privilege.
If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate,
distribute or copy this message or attachments.
If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender
immediately and delete this message.
****************************************************************************
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This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared
by the Ministry of Health's Content and Virus Filtering Gateway
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New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties left an annotation ()
On August 26, 2022, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) apologized for their mismanagement of this request.
https://nzccl.org.nz/apology-from-dpmc-f...
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