The IPC celebrates its 10 year anniversary

This year, the IPC is proud to be celebrating its 10 year anniversary and commitment to promoting citizens’ information access and privacy rights in NSW.

The Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) began operations on 1 January 2011 and was established by the NSW Parliament as a single oversight body, incorporating the Office of the Information Commissioner (OIC) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (formerly Privacy NSW). More about the IPC’s functions can be found in our fact sheet.

Since its commencement in 2011, has secured a well-deserved reputation as a provider of expert advice, cogent decision-making, and trenchant regulatory action.

The IPC’s significant contribution to upholding and promoting information access and privacy rights over the last decade is well demonstrated by achievements including:

1. promoting public awareness and understanding of information access and privacy rights by:

• conducting 8 Right to Know Week NSW campaigns and 10 Privacy Awareness Week NSW campaigns
• commissioning and publishing seminal research on information access, privacy data sharing and open data
• releasing 17 privacy resources for NSW citizens
• releasing 30 information access resources for NSW citizens

2. providing information, advice, assistance to the public and agencies by:

• receiving and assessing 10,309 reviews and complaints
• launching the IPC’s e-learning portal in 2015 to provide training for NSW public sector agency staff for information access legislation
• enhancing the application and case management process to achieve benchmark standards of timeliness and quality
• implementing a Customer Service Charter
• publishing a Charter for Public Participation to ensure agencies engage effectively with citizens
• launching the IPC’s Client Satisfaction Survey in 2017
• expanding the Agency Advice Satisfaction Survey in 2020
• developing the Information Governance Agency Self-assessment Tools in 2019
• delivering the Privacy Governance Framework, a dynamic online privacy tool designed for “whole of organisation” engagement with the management of personal and health information
• providing advice to agencies for a range of projects in accordance with the Digital Restart Fund Act 2020

3. issuing guidelines and other publications about the exercise of functions under access to information and privacy legislation through the publication of:

• 2 Privacy Commissioner guidelines
• 5 Privacy Commissioner health guidelines
• 9 Information Commissioner guidelines

4. monitoring, auditing and reporting on the exercise of functions under legislation by:

• reporting on the operation of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 (PPIP) under section 61B from 2010 to date
• reporting on the operation of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (GIPA) across all sectors from 2010 to date
• delivering an online IPC GIPA Tool in 2015 for agencies to manage applications and submit their annual GIPA reports to the IPC (as at January 2021, 288 agencies have been using the GIPA Tool)
• embedding a targeted risk-based program to proactively elevate compliance and publishing 18 public reports
• implementing assessment systems and capabilities to ensure that submissions from the Privacy Commissioner on a range of cases before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) are instructive and authoritative.