Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
November 23, 2016

Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner – Report A-2016-025 Released

The Information and Privacy Commissioner, Donovan Molloy, has released his Report A-2016-025 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.nl.ca/reports/commissioner

Summary:

The Applicant made a two-part request to Central Health seeking: 1) all records relating to her recruitment, hiring and subsequent contract with Central Health from May 1st, 2014 – July 1st, 2015; and 2) all written records to or from [named individual] and the Applicant from May 1, 2014 – July 19th, 2016. Central Health released a number of responsive records with some redactions under section 40(1) of the ATIPPA, 2015 (disclosure harmful to personal privacy). The Applicant filed a Complaint with this Office regarding the reasonableness and adequacy of Central Heath’s search, noting an e-mail in the Applicant’s possession that should have been responsive to the Applicant’s request, had not been included in the responsive records released by Central Health, thereby calling into question the completeness of the responsive records provided. The Commissioner found that even though Central Health did not provide the e-mail in question to the Applicant as part of the responsive records, it had discovered this e-mail during its initial search and that overall Central Health did perform a reasonable search. However, the Commissioner cautioned Central Health that the e-mail in question should have been provided with the initial responsive records. The Commissioner accepted that this was a good faith error but reminded Central Health that it is a very serious matter if a public body were to knowingly fail to provide a responsive record to an Applicant without relying on one of the exceptions in the ATIPPA, 2015. The Commissioner also noted the potential for a future own motion investigation.

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Media contact:

Donovan Molloy, Q.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner 709-729-6309

2016 11 23                              4:25 p.m.