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Occasionally, giving people access to information about themselves can be actively harmful to them.
Where an organisation believes that giving someone access to their information could harm their physcial or mental health, it may be able to withhold the information. Before the organisation can do this, it needs to show:
A person's medical practitioner might be their GP or a specialist, such as their psychiatrist. It needs to be someone who is involved in the person's treatment and who is likely to have a reasonable understanding of what the effect on the person will be.
Sometimes, the person may not have seen a medical practitioner for some time. People's circumstances change - for instance, information that may have caused harm to someone in the past may not have the same effect on them if released today. If an organisation thinks someone may be at risk if they receive certain information, it may be worth suggesting that they have an independent medical assessment.
An organisation should consider whether it can release a summary of the information instead of denying access to all of it, or talk the person through what is concerning them. It is not an 'all or nothing' decision.
Privacy Act 2020 reference:
| 49. Protection, etc, of individual as reason for refusing access to personal information (1) An agency may refuse access to any personal information requested if— |
| (b) after consultation is undertaken (where practicable) by or on behalf of the agency with the health practitioner of the individual concerned, the agency is satisfied that— |
| (i) the information relates to the individual concerned; and (ii) the disclosure of the information (being information that relates to the physical or mental health of the requestor) would be likely to prejudice the health of the individual concerned |
Refusal ground - Serious threat to life, health, or safety
Can I withhold information to protect someone’s life, health or safety?
