The complainant asked me to investigate the refusal of the Department of Social Welfare to give access to documentation of any notes made by any social worker or counsellor in respect of his step-daughter. During the course of the investigation I learned that he had been convicted of sexually violating his step-daughter

The Department's response to the request was that it considered the information to be confidential to the step-daughter and therefore the Department considered it was necessary to withhold it to protect her privacy. The Department referred to section 9(2)(a) of the Official Information Act and section 29(1)(a) of the Privacy Act.

Having perused the documents at issue I formed the view that most of the information contained in those documents was not personal information about the requester but rather personal information about his step-daughter and her family. I noted that the Privacy Act did not provide the requester with any rights in respect of accessing that information. However, as the information had been requested by the complainant and as it was official information as defined by the Official Information Act, following discussions with the Ombudsman's Office, it was agreed that the Ombudsman would assess the Department's decision to withhold the information after I had completed my investigation of the requester's complaint in terms of the Privacy Act.

I did identify some personal information about the requester in the documents. The personal information contained in those documents consisted almost entirely of allegations by the step-daughter about the complainant. The Department relied upon section 29(1)(a) of the Act as providing it with good reason to withhold the information. That section provides a reason to refuse a request where

"(a) The disclosure of the information would involve the unwarranted disclosure of the affairs of another individual."

I did not consider that this section applied to all the information contained in the document. All the allegations had been disclosed to the requester during the course of the Department's investigation and the subsequent legal proceedings. I therefore did not accept that the disclosure of the allegations made about him would be an "unwarranted disclosure" of the affairs of the step-daughter. I further noted that this information was extremely prejudicial information about the complainant. The complainant had the right to ensure that his side of the story was represented in the context of any personal information held about him.

I recommended that the specific allegations contained in the documents should be extracted from the rest of the information and made available to the complainant in the summary form as allowed by section 42 of the Act. I accepted that section 29(1)(a) provided a good reason to withhold any comments that the step-daughter had made about her feelings or reactions to any of the complainant's actions and any reference by the professionals involved to the effect of the complainant's actions on the step-daughter.

The Department released their information in accordance with my recommendation.

Refusal of access to information - whether information personal information - Section 29(1)(a) of the Privacy Act.

Access to personal information - Department of Social Welfare - Refusal - Request by parent for information about child - Meaning of "personal information" - Referral to Ombudsmen - Releasing allegations is not an "unwarranted disclosure" of child's affairs - Information released as a summary of file - Official Information Act 1982, s 9(2)(a) - Privacy Act 1993, ss 2, 29(1)(a) and 42 - Information privacy principle 6