New South Wales Consolidated Acts

BIOSECURITY ACT 2015 - SECT 387

387 Collection, use and disclosure of information

(1) The Secretary, an authorised officer, a local control authority and any other person engaged in the administration of this Act may collect and use information (including personal information and health information) for the purpose of exercising their biosecurity risk functions.

(2) The Secretary, an authorised officer, a local control authority and any other person engaged in the administration of this Act may, for the purpose of exercising a biosecurity risk function, disclose information (including personal information and health information) about a person, without the consent of the person--

(a) to a public sector agency, or

(b) to any other person, but only if the disclosure is reasonably necessary for the purpose of exercising a biosecurity risk function.

Note : Public sector agencies are bound by the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 .

(3) A public sector agency may disclose to the Secretary, an authorised officer, a local control authority or any other person engaged in the administration of this Act any information (including personal information and health information) about a person that the public sector agency holds, without the consent of the person, if the Secretary, authorised officer, local control authority or other person requests the information and certifies in writing that the information--

(a) is required for the purpose of exercising a biosecurity risk function, and

(b) the provision of the information is reasonably necessary for the purpose of exercising that biosecurity risk function.

(4) The Secretary, an authorised officer, a local control authority and any other person engaged in the administration of this Act are not required to comply with section 9 of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 if compliance would detrimentally affect, or prevent, the exercise of their biosecurity risk functions.

(5) In this section--

"biosecurity risk function" means a function under this Act relating to the prevention, elimination, minimisation or management of biosecurity risks.

"health information" has the same meaning as it has in the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 .

"personal information" has the same meaning as it has in the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 .

"public sector agency" has the same meaning as it has in the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 .