Commonwealth legislation

Approval of guidelines issued under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

2/10 complexity

The Privacy Commissioner formally approves national guidelines (drafted by the NHMRC CEO) that let health organisations collect, use, or disclose patient health information without consent for specific public-interest purposes — primarily medical research, public‑health statistics, and health‑service management.

Effective 12 March 2014 and replacing the December 2001 guidelines, the approval creates legal privacy exemptions designed to balance individual privacy with the public benefits of research and health planning.

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Approval of guidelines issued under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988.

Approval of guidelines issued under Sect

Approval of guidelines issued under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988

I, Timothy Pilgrim, Privacy Commissioner, hereby approve pursuant to subsections 95A(2) and (4) of the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act) the guidelines issued by the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council for the purposes of paragraph 16B(3)(c) and subparagraph 16B(2)(d)(iii) of the Privacy Act, namely, Guidelines approved under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988.

Under section 95A(2), for the purposes of paragraph 16B(3)(c), I may approve guidelines that relate to the use and disclosure of health information for the purposes of research, or the compilation or analysis of statistics, relevant to public health or public safety.

Under section 95A(4), for the purposes of paragraph 16B(2), I may approve guidelines that relate to the collection of health information for the purposes of:

research, or the compilation or analysis of statistics, relevant to public health or public safety; or
the management, funding or monitoring of a health service.

This approval has the effect of repealing the approval by the Privacy Commissioner of the Guidelines approved under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988 (December 2001, FRLI F2008B00222).

This approval takes effect on 12 March 2014.

[signed]

Timothy Pilgrim
Privacy Commissioner

4 March 2014

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

Approval of guidelines issued under Sect Approval of guidelines issued under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988

Approval of guidelines issued under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988

Under section 95A(4), for the purposes of paragraph 16B(2), I may approve guidelines that relate to the collection of health information for the purposes of:

research, or the compilation or analysis of statistics, relevant to public health or public safety; or
the management, funding or monitoring of a health service.

This approval has the effect of repealing the approval by the Privacy Commissioner of the Guidelines approved under Section 95A of the Privacy Act 1988 (December 2001, FRLI F2008B00222).

This approval takes effect on 12 March 2014.

[signed]

Timothy Pilgrim
Privacy Commissioner

4 March 2014