19 April 2023
Anthony Jordan
[FYI request #22278 email]
Kia ora Anthony
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-024079
Thank you for your email of 27 March 2023, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Reference to the act that allows the ACC to access a Claimant ACC Private File in Conjunction with
an Official Information Request. Reference to the act that allows any third party/agent of the ACC's to access a Claimant ACC Private
File in Conjunction with an Official Information Request.
The Official Information Act 1982 is the relevant legislation
Official information is defined under section 2 of the Act as any information held by a public service agency,
a Minister of the Crown in his official capacity, or an organisation. ACC is defined as an organisation under
the Act.
As information on claim files is held by ACC, it is then subject to the requirements of the Act. Therefore, the
Act itself is the legislation that allows ACC to access claim files when it is necessary for responding to
Official Information requests.
Responses to Official Information requests are centralised and responded by ACC’s OIA Services team. A
request for information received elsewhere, for example by other Government Agencies, for information
that sits with ACC would be transferred to us for a response under section 14 of the Act. For this reason, we
are not aware of occasions or circumstances in which a third party or an agent would access an ACC claim
file for the purposes of responding to an Official Information Act request. However, the Act would be the
relevant legislation to respond to an Official Information request relating to ACC claim information.
In practice it is rare that we would access individual claims to answer an Official Information Act request.
Most of ACC's key claim related information is copied from the system of record (for example our case
management system Eos and our Medical Fees Payment system) to data warehouses, where the
information can be extracted by authorised staff with reporting and analysis tools such as SAS Enterprise
Guide and PowerBI; noting that any disclosure of information would be subject to withholding and refusal
grounds. Furthermore, requests under section 23 of the Act for a written statement of reasons for a
decision affecting that client will always require access to claim files.
If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
You can email me at
[email address]. Ngā mihi
Sara Freitag
Acting Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement
GOV-024079 Page 1 of 1
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