15 December 2022
Carole Young
[FYI request #21149 email]
Kia ora Carole
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-022061
Thank you for your email of 18 November 2022, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
•
How many complaints has ACC received of electronic files missing from their internal system since
2018? (Contacts, Claim File, Party File, etc)
•
How many complaints were identified to be confirmed missing files on the system since 2018?
•
When multiple files are proven to be missing from a clients file, are there any internal "next steps" other
than an apology to the client?
•
Are there any internal procedures and processes taken to investigate the absence of information, how it
happened, and to provide surety that it won't happen again?
•
When investigating missing information on the computer, is there a way of determining if it is system
error, or user error (ie, a case manager never entered it into the system)?
We are refusing your request for complaints received related to missing electronic claim files
To identify the relevant complaints received about missing information from ACC’s current claims
management system (Eos), we would have to extract all the 549 privacy complaints made since 2018 that
have been entered into Eos, and manually review these complaints. As such, we are refusing this part of
your request under section 18(f) of the Act as substantial collation and research would be required to
respond. The same applies to your question on how many of these complaints resulted in claim information
being confirmed as missing.
In making this decision, we considered extending the time limit for responding or applying a charge (as
al owed under the Act). However, neither of these were offered as responding using either option would
still have unreasonably interfered with ACC’s operations.
Missing information
Once we confirm that there is information missing from a claim file, we will attempt to obtain that
information from its original source, for example, clinical records from a treating provider. This may not
always be possible, particularly if the missing information is from some time ago.
Where a physical file has been stored at our off-site storage facility and the entire file or a volume of the
file cannot be located upon request, an ACC169 Lost file certification form is completed and uploaded to
the Eos claim record. This form provides a prompt for staff to attempt to obtain relevant information from
its original source.
Investigating absence of information
Information that cannot be retrieved and is deemed lost, is a breach of
Information privacy principle 5 -
Storage and security of personal information (Privacy Act 2020) and will be loaded on ACC’s privacy
reporting tool for further consideration by ACC’s Privacy Team.
GOV-022061 Page 1 of 2
It is important to note that each instance will be different from another, which may lead to different
outcomes, for example a system error may require a fix, while human error may drive a need for additional
and/or targeted training. Because there is no general internal procedures and processes, this part of your
request is refused under section 18(e) as the information does not exist.
To determine whether it is a system or user error, Eos has some audit functions that, for example, will show
who edited a contact or whether they 'deleted' info from it.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public
ACC has decided to proactively release a copy of this response on ACC’s website. All requester data,
including your name and contact details, will be removed prior to release. The released response wil be
made availab
le www.acc.co.nz/resources/#/category/12.
If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
You can email me a
t [email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you can also contact the Ombudsman via
[email address] or by phoning 0800 802 602. Information about how to make a complaint
is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Ngā mihi
Sara Freitag
Acting Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement
GOV-022061 Page 2 of 2
Document Outline
