Consulting with the Office of the Information Commissioner

Under the Right to Information Act 2009¹ (RTI Act), if an agency is going to disclose information which would reasonably be expected to be of concern to a third party, an agency must take reasonably practicable steps to obtain their views.²

While access applications cannot be made to an agency^3] for RTI or IP application processing documents,⁴ and this exclusion includes external review correspondence from the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC), other documents from the OIC can be applied for if they are held by an agency. These could include OIC correspondence sent to an agency during a performance audit or privacy complaint, or material circulated during Privacy Awareness Week.

OIC's view is that consultation with OIC about releasing these documents will generally not be required because OIC considers the professional opinion of a public sector employee given in a professional capacity to be routine personal work information, the disclosure of which would generally not be of concern to that person. The harm that could result from its disclosure would, in most circumstances, be minimal or none.

In addition, OIC supports the pro-disclosure bias of the RTI Act and promotes agency openness wherever possible. The release of documents that record information provided by OIC officers⁵ about the Acts will generally not be of concern.

However, if disclosure would not enhance government accountability or provide additional substantive information, and staff involvement was limited to an administrative role, the public interest in disclosure of staff identities may be low, and outweighed⁶ by the privacy and personal information factors against disclosure.⁷ In these circumstances, an agency considering release may need to consult with the OIC.

Please refer to the Routine personal work information of public sector employees guideline for more information.