MCL and Health Rights Commission

MCL and Health Rights Commission
(2002 S0063, 17 April 2003) 

The applicant sought access to information concerning professional complaints made about her husband, a medical practitioner. 

The Deputy Information Commissioner was satisfied that the respondent was conducting an investigation of a possible contravention of the law, or that it had referred relevant matters to other agencies for investigation.  He was also satisfied that, given the nature of the investigations, and the applicant's conduct in contacting a complainant in a previous investigation, there was a reasonable basis for expecting that disclosure of the matter in issue could prejudice the investigation of a possible contravention of the law, either through contact by the applicant with the complainant or other potential witnesses, or by allowing the responses of witnesses to be tailored to, or coloured by, the information made available through any such disclosure. Accordingly, the Deputy Information Commissioner decided that the matter in issue was exempt from disclosure under s.42(1)(a) of the FOI Act.