Waters, Nigel --- "PID No 1 to lapse" [1995] PrivLawPRpr 102; (1995) 2(8) Privacy Law & Policy Reporter 153

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PID No 1 to lapse

Public Interest Determination No 1 (Australian Privacy Commissioner)

PID No 1, issued by the Privacy Commissioner in August 1990 for a five-year period (see Federal Privacy Handbook, p 803), expired on 11 November 1995. Public Interest Determinations, in effect conditional exemptions from specific Information Privacy Principles, are issued under s 72 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The determination was made to allow the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to disclose specified personal information to the Victorian Mental Health Board (VMHRB), to assist the Board in assessing whether individuals with a criminal history should continue to be detained in mental institutions. Despite the arguments put by the DPP and VMHRB in support of the original application, which were accepted by the Commissioner, there have been no disclosures under the determination in the five years it has been in force. An audit of the conditions of the determination was conducted by the Privacy Commissioner's staff in January 1994, reported in the forthcoming Seventh Annual Report of the Privacy Commissioner, had already revealed that the DPP had not used the facility granted by the Determination. The DPP had not requested a further determination, and it therefore lapsed on 11 November.

Nigel Waters.