1 Feb 2007, 09:00

A man was in New Zealand on a student permit. Under the Immigration Act 1987, student permits can be revoked at any time for a number of reasons, including if the permit holder has been convicted of criminal offending.

The man pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying objectionable material under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1994. He attended a pre-sentence meeting with the Department of Corrections. The Department contacted Immigration New Zealand (INZ) and disclosed details of the charges laid against him.

The Department advised that it needed to confirm the man's current immigration status to ensure the pre-sentence report to the Court was accurate.

Principle 11 provides that an agency which holds personal information must not disclose that information unless an exception applies.

The Department relied on principle 11(e)(i) in disclosing the complainant's criminal convictions. It said the disclosure of the information was necessary to avoid prejudice to a public sector agency's ability to maintain the law.

INZ has a maintenance of the law role. One of its functions is to ensure that only those who are eligible to hold student permits do so. In this instance, I formed the opinion that the Department's disclosure to INZ was necessary because for the maintenance of the law INZ needed to confirm that the man was still eligible to hold a student permit.

Once the Department discovered that he was on a student permit it was aware the conviction would affect his immigration status. It was therefore entitled to disclose the complainant's personal information to INZ.

I formed the opinion that the Department had a proper basis for disclosing the complainant's personal information and had not caused an interference with his privacy.

March 2007

Disclosure of personal information – Department of Corrections – Criminal convictions – disclosure to Immigration New Zealand “Maintenance of the law” – Information privacy principle 11(e)(i).