ACC policies, rules and advice inconsistent with ACC Privacy Policies and legislation
AS Van Wey (Account suspended) made this Official Information request to Accident Compensation Corporation
Response to this request is long overdue. By law Accident Compensation Corporation should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.
From: AS Van Wey (Account suspended)
Dear Accident Compensation Corporation,
Your Policy "When to save emails in Eos Policy v16.0" includes a list of types of email communications in which ACC advises employees not to save. These emails clearly contain information about a claimant, and thus, would be considered personal information that is subject to the Privacy Act. Furthermore, these communications are all subject to the Public Records Act.
If ACC employees are making a habit of deleting client personal information (the types of emails listed in your policy), please explain how these actions are consistent with the requirements under IPP 5 & IPP 6 of the Privacy Act, as well as the legal requirements to maintain information, as set out under the Public Records Act. If these emails are not being saved to the claimant's file or in EOS (the "Task" or "Contacts" sections), where is the information being saved and how does a claimant obtain access, pursuant to the Privacy Act, OIA, and the Code of ACC Claimants' Rights?
I note that your your Authority Principles document (GOV-026284, Appendix, p 52) states: "We don't need authority to use or disclose information for the purpose of establishing a client's eligibility entitlements."
ACC's Authority Principle has me quite concerned, as it is clearly inconsistent with the Privacy Act 2020 and Health Information Privacy Code 2020, which is all about the legal obligation of government agencies to seek the informed consent of the individual prior to obtaining or disclosing information.
Further, ACC's internal policies specify that prior to seeking or disclosing information, ACC is to discuss this with the claimant and obtain their consent. See:
- Report a Privacy Breach,
- Summary of the Information Privacy Principles Policy,
- Personal Information and Privacy Guidelines,
- Privacy Policy
- Privacy check before disclosing information Policy,
- Client Choice of Providers Policy
- Seek External Clinical Advice
- Arrange Medical Single Discipline Assessment
-ACC Privacy Maturity Action Plan
Please note again, neither the ACC6300 form nor the ACC45 form include consent for ACC to disclose any information. Thus, checking to see if these forms are on file is insufficient to verify consent for disclosure. These forms also do not satisfy IPP 3 of the Privacy Act, and thus are not adequate documents to claim that ACC has obtained a claimant's informed consent. One cannot provide informed consent if the one is not informed. Even the ACC45 and ACC46 form start with the statement, "The form collects the basic information we need about your injury to help us decide if we can provide cover. If we need more information about his claim we will contact you later." Thus, this form does not give the consent to seek information without ACC contacting the claimant and specifying the records ACC needs. Please refer to:
- Request Clinical Records for Treatment Injury v16.0
- Request medical or clinical records Policy
- (NGCM) Request Clinical Records v100.0
- Request and Obtain External Agency Records
- Obtain Client Authority to Collect Information
So for instance, if ACC doesn't explicitly state that ACC intends to disclose information to a particular person (such as a particular ECA) and what information they intend to disclose (with specificity), prior to obtaining the information, then ACC has not obtained the information for the purpose of disclosing to another. ACC is required to obtain the consent of the claimant prior to any disclosure, with rare exceptions.
I note that a key point of having ensured the claimant's informed consent, which would be to ensure the claimant knows exactly what is being sought or disclosed to whom, mitigates the risk of ACC employees disclosing or obtaining information unrelated to the claim, which ACC has done in many of my claims.
Please ensure the response comes from ACC's Privacy Officer, rather than attempting to "wing it".
Yours faithfully,
AS Van Wey
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora
Thank you for contacting ACC; this is an automatic reply to confirm we
have received your email.
We will try to respond your query as quickly as possible. However,
depending on the nature of your request you may not receive a response for
up to 20 working days. You can check the [1]Ombudsman OIA response
calculator to find when your request for official information will be due
In cases where ACC’s response provides information that is identified to
be of general public interest, the response may also be published on the
ACC’s website. If ACC publishes the response to your OIA request, all
personal information, including your name and contact details, will be
removed.
The information you have requested may involve documents which contains
the names of our staff. Please let us know whether you require these
names. We may need to consult our staff before deciding whether we can
release this information, and this may take a bit more time. If we do not
hear from you, we will assume that you do not require staff names.
Our [2]website provides up to date news and information about our work.
You can also follow us on [3]Facebook and [4]Twitter. Further information
about how to contact us is also available [5]here.
Ngâ mihi,
Government Engagement Team
Government Engagement, ACC
' 0800 101 996
* Box 242, Wellington 6011
[6]www.acc.co.nz
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/agenc...
2. http://www.acc.co.nz/
3. http://www.facebook.com/ACCNewZealand/
4. https://twitter.com/accnz
5. http://www.acc.co.nz/contact/
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
From: AS Van Wey (Account suspended)
Dear Accident Compensation Corporation,
To avoid any doubt, I make my request under the Code of ACC Claimants' Rights as well as the OIA.
Yours faithfully,
AS Van Wey
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora
Thank you for contacting ACC; this is an automatic reply to confirm we
have received your email.
We will try to respond your query as quickly as possible. However,
depending on the nature of your request you may not receive a response for
up to 20 working days. You can check the [1]Ombudsman OIA response
calculator to find when your request for official information will be due
In cases where ACC’s response provides information that is identified to
be of general public interest, the response may also be published on the
ACC’s website. If ACC publishes the response to your OIA request, all
personal information, including your name and contact details, will be
removed.
The information you have requested may involve documents which contains
the names of our staff. Please let us know whether you require these
names. We may need to consult our staff before deciding whether we can
release this information, and this may take a bit more time. If we do not
hear from you, we will assume that you do not require staff names.
Our [2]website provides up to date news and information about our work.
You can also follow us on [3]Facebook and [4]Twitter. Further information
about how to contact us is also available [5]here.
Ngâ mihi,
Government Engagement Team
Government Engagement, ACC
' 0800 101 996
* Box 242, Wellington 6011
[6]www.acc.co.nz
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/agenc...
2. http://www.acc.co.nz/
3. http://www.facebook.com/ACCNewZealand/
4. https://twitter.com/accnz
5. http://www.acc.co.nz/contact/
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora Amy,
The best way to make a complaint about our privacy process is to contact
ACC’s Privacy Officer.
[1]https://www.acc.co.nz/privacy/make-a-com...
Please note this forum is used for Official Information requests and their
response will not be posted here.
Ngâ mihi,
Sara Freitag (she/her)
Acting Manager | OIA Services
' 027 973 7330
* PO Box 242, Wellington 6011
show quoted sections
From: AS Van Wey (Account suspended)
Dear Government Services,
Thank you for the suggestion to make a complaint to the privacy officer at ACC, which I have done and ACC has not addressed. However, I still request the information in my request.
Yours sincerely,
AS Van Wey
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora
Thank you for contacting ACC; this is an automatic reply to confirm we
have received your email.
We will try to respond your query as quickly as possible. However,
depending on the nature of your request you may not receive a response for
up to 20 working days. You can check the [1]Ombudsman OIA response
calculator to find when your request for official information will be due
In cases where ACC’s response provides information that is identified to
be of general public interest, the response may also be published on the
ACC’s website. If ACC publishes the response to your OIA request, all
personal information, including your name and contact details, will be
removed.
The information you have requested may involve documents which contains
the names of our staff. Please let us know whether you require these
names. We may need to consult our staff before deciding whether we can
release this information, and this may take a bit more time. If we do not
hear from you, we will assume that you do not require staff names.
Our [2]website provides up to date news and information about our work.
You can also follow us on [3]Facebook and [4]Twitter. Further information
about how to contact us is also available [5]here.
Ngâ mihi,
Government Engagement Team
Government Engagement, ACC
' 0800 101 996
* Box 242, Wellington 6011
[6]www.acc.co.nz
Disclaimer:
"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/agenc...
2. http://www.acc.co.nz/
3. http://www.facebook.com/ACCNewZealand/
4. https://twitter.com/accnz
5. http://www.acc.co.nz/contact/
6. https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlo...
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- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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