31 October 2023
AS Van Wey
[FYI request #23363 email]
Kia ora
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-027820
Thank you for your email of 9 October 2023, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Request 3(b): Please provide me with the number of instances for each physical year since 2013,
where ACC sought and obtained ECA reports from physicians in areas outside their scope of
practice, and /or from persons who were not permitted to practice medicine in NZ (e.g., did not hold
a current practicing certificate). We know the number is at least two, as I've just named two
instances in the last year.
Request 4: For each of the physical years since 2013, the number of times ACC sought ECA advice
without first:
(1) notifying the claimant that they were seeking an ECA as required under ACC's policies, the Act,
the Code, and the Privacy Act 2020; and
(2) providing the claimant with a list of options of ECA's, as required under ACC's policies, the Act,
the Code and other legislation (See HDC Code of Consumer Rights Regulations 1996); and
(3) seeking the claimant's consent to disclose records, as required under ACC's policies, the Code,
the Privacy Act, and the HDC Code of Consumer Rights; and
(4) without having first discussed with the claimant what information ACC had obtained, and from
whom, and provided that information to the claimant, as required under ACC's policies, the Code,
and the Privacy Act.
We know the number cannot be zero, because lodged 8 privacy complaints on 10 October 2022
alone, and followed up with additional complaints on the following days and months.
Request 5: For each of the financial years, since 2013, please provide me with the number of
instances where ACC
(1) obtained information from third parties without first obtaining the informed consent of the
claimant (specifying what information they were seeking and from whom),
(2) disclosed unrelated information to third parties (e.g., ECA's, ICRA, FairWay, external lawyers),
(3) made inaccurate or false statements to claimants about what information they held to the
claimant, FairWay or others, and
4) withheld the relevant information from medical assessors, claimants, ECA's, ICRA, and or
FairWay; and (5) sought information from the wrong persons.
Our response
To find out if we have data to answer your requests, we checked with both the Complaints team and the
Privacy team, to check whether any of these scenarios have been raised as a complaint or a privacy breach.
We are unable to determine if any of these scenarios have been raised as a complaint or a privacy breach,
because this level of detail is not included in the structured database. Finding this information would
require a manual review of all complaints and privacy breaches. As such, we are refusing this part of your
request as the information cannot be made available without substantial collation and research. This
decision has been made under section 18(f) of the Act.
GOV-027820 Page 1 of 2
In doing so, we considered extending our timeframe to respond and charging (as allowed under the Act).
However, it was determined that the resources required to extract the data would have a significant impact
on the everyday functions of the team(s) involved.
If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
You can email me at
[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-027820 Page 2 of 2
Document Outline
