SYT and Department of Health (270019)

Application number:
270019
Decision date:
Monday, Mar 15, 2010

SYT and Department of Health
(270019, 15 March 2010)

 

 

The applicant made an application under the Information Privacy Act 2009 (IP Act) for access to information held by the Department of Health (also known as Queensland Health) (QH) relating to herself. The documents located by QH were the applicant’s medical records.

 

Section 48(2) of the Right to Information Act 2009 – exempt information

 

Referring to section 67 of the IP Act and sections 47(3)(a) and 48 of the Right to Information Act 2009 (RTI Act), the Information Commissioner noted that:

 

·          if the disclosure of information is prohibited by an Act listed in schedule 3, section 12(1) of the RTI Act, then the information will be exempt from disclosure under section 48 of the RTI Act and access may be refused under section 47(3)(a) of the RTI Act

·          information cannot be exempt information under schedule 3, section 12(1) of the RTI Act if it contains only the applicant’s personal information. 

 

After considering the information in issue, the Information Commissioner decided that:

 

·          disclosure of the information in issue was prohibited by an Act listed in schedule 3, section 12(1) of the RTI Act and the information in issue was exempt information

·          the information in issue concerned the shared personal information of the applicant and other persons and the applicant’s personal information was interwoven with the personal information of other persons to the extent that it could not be separated

·          where one individual’s personal information cannot be separated from the personal information of other persons, then:

 

o      severance or deletion of the information from the document under section 89 of the IP Act is not possible

o      the schedule 3, section 12(2) exception does not apply

o      the information is exempt information

 

·          as the applicant’s personal information could not be separated from the personal information of other persons, the application of schedule 3, section 12(1) of the RTI Act was not excluded by schedule 3, section 12(2) of the RTI Act and the information in issue was exempt from disclosure.