To help deliver better services and reduce crime, victimisation and harm, the Ministry of Justice sometimes shares personal information with other government agencies.
This is allowed by the Privacy Act 2020, and includes measures to protect people’s privacy.
Approved information sharing agreements (AISAs) are one of the ways we share information to deliver public services while protecting people’s privacy. The Ministry currently has AISAs with the following agencies:
The shared information is used to answer research, policy, and evaluation questions across many subject areas. It helps solve complex issues that affect many New Zealanders, such as crime and caring for vulnerable children.
The shared information helps the Crown Law Office maintain an efficient and effective criminal justice system, improve the quality of public prosecutions, and manage the budget for Crown prosecutions.
For more information about our AISAs, see:
If you have a question about our AISAs, please email privacy@justice.govt.nz
There’s an important difference between information held by courts and information held by the Ministry of Justice.
Court information has a special legal status. This is because the courts are a separate and independent branch of the government. The Ministry of Justice looks after court information but it does not control it.
We only share information held by courts with other agencies when the law says we can (for example Schedule 4 of the Privacy Act(external link) allows us to share information about court proceedings with Police); a relevant judge has authorised it; or an Approved Information Sharing Agreement (AISA) is in place.
To find out more about court and Ministry information, see Schedule 1(external link) of the District Court Act 2016 and Schedule 2(external link) of the Senior Courts Act 2016. The types of court information we can share via AISAs is the list of “permitted information.”