Housing New Zealand Corporation,

Attention : Sharon Girvan

Dear Sharon

In a previous OIA request I asked about Housing Corp. sharing personal information with other agencies.

You confirmed that Housing Corp. sends personal information to finance companies, debt collection agencies and so on, but you couldn't tell me any details, as "the number of these requests was not centrally recorded and would require extensive research to obtain".

I was very surprised to hear this to say the least. It implies that there is no management, tracking, or auditing of the release of personal information.

It would seem personal information is released on an ad-hoc basis, without any mechanism for senior management to even be aware that personal information is being released.

I am currently interested in release of information to non-government agencies only.

My questions are :

(1) At what level is a request for the supply of personal information approved ?

(2) Is an audit process used to ensure personal information is not supplied when it should have been withheld ?

(3) If there is such a process, what is it ?

(4) You say that you would only release information on a customer with the customers consent. Is this consent :

(a) Obtained by you by contacting the customer when a request for information is received ?

(b) Held on your files ?

(c) Not held on your files but always sighted by you before information is released ?

(d) Neither obtained, held or sighted by you. (It is based on assurance by the requester that they hold consent.)

(5) If any information is released on the basis that the requester assures you that they hold the relevant consent, how often is this audited and what is the audit process ?

(6) Does HNZC management require any kind of reporting on the release of personal information to private agencies ? and if so what data is provided to management ?

Thank you very much,

Yours faithfully,

David Burgess