The complainant asked me to investigate the Department of Social Welfare's failure to provide the complainant with the personal information he had requested. The Department had advised the complainant that they were unable to locate the information he was seeking. The Department relied on section 29(2)(b) of the Privacy Act which allows an agency to refuse a request for personal information under information privacy principles 6 if the information requested does not exist or cannot be found.

In order to ascertain whether all reasonable steps had been taken to find the information, I asked the Department to provide me with a report outlining the steps taken to locate the personal information requested. The Department reported the details of an extensive search they had conducted. Enquiries revealed that the file had been transferred to another office and later transferred again. A complete search of all current and past files of the office where the file was last transferred to was carried out. This included a search of files held in storage and in archives. A further check was also made at the originating office and the previous Director of that office had been approached. Contact was also made with a former staff member who had been involved in the file but she was not able to provide any material help in locating the file.

In the circumstances of this case, it appeared that the Department had taken all reasonable steps to locate the information sought. I was not aware of any further steps that were available to them to locate the information.

I formed the view that section 29(2)(b) provided the Department with good reason to refuse the request on the basis that the information requested either did not exist or could not be found.

Failure of Department to provide personal information requested - section 29(2) The Privacy Act 1993.

Access to personal information - Department of Social Welfare - Refusal - Information could not be found - Reasonable steps taken to locate information - Privacy Act 1993, s 29(2)(b) - Information privacy principle 6