The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Phil Wall, has released his Report 2006-010 under authority of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. A summary of the report is included below.

To view the report in its entirety, please go to //www.oipc.gov.nl.ca/

Report 2006-010

Report Date: May 18, 2006

Public Body: Department of Government Services

Summary: The applicant applied to the Department of Government Services (the "Department") for access to a letter written by a third party which references the applicant. The department provided access to most of the letter, but severed two small passages, citing the mandatory exception set out in section 30 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (the "ATIPPA"), which prohibits the disclosure of another person�s personal information without that person�s permission. Efforts to resolve this matter informally were unsuccessful, and the applicant requested that the commissioner review this matter. The applicant alleges that a different letter that he wrote to a government official had previously been disclosed in full to the third party who wrote this letter (and to the R.C.M.P.), and he therefore felt that the same standard should apply in this case, such that he should receive a complete and unsevered copy of the letter to which he requested access. The commissioner determined that the passages in the letter which the department had severed had been correctly withheld. The commissioner also determined that he could not issue a recommendation in relation to the alleged disclosure by a government official of a different letter which was not the subject of the applicant�s access request. One recommendation was issued by the commissioner in relation to the department�s failure to respond to the applicant within the 30 day time limit as prescribed by section 11 of the ATIPPA.

Media contact: Sandy Hounsell, Executive Director (709) 729-6309

2006 05 25                        10:35 a.m.