New legislation has changed part of the Public Access to Information Act.

A statement from the Information Commissioner’s Office explained that all requests for personal information — including disciplinary records, human resource documents and recruitment records — must now be made using the Personal Information Protection Act.

Pipa, which came into effect on January 1, gives individuals the right to access what personal and medical information organisations have about them, how it was received and used and with whom it was shared.

However, requests for other information held by public authorities must still be made using Pati.

Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez explained: “The public can still make Pati requests for records held by a public authority containing a third party’s personal information.

“Pipa will not be a barrier to fulfilling the Pati Act’s purposes of promoting accountability and transparency around decisions made by public authorities.

“In practice, it means that records containing the work-related decisions and actions by elected officials, executive public officers, board chairs and other leaders within the public sector may still be subject to disclosure in response to a Pati request.

“This will only occur when the public has a strong interest in the accountability and transparency of these individuals’ work information and their expectation of privacy for this information is low.”

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How Pipa changed Pati.pdf