Policy on the collection and handling of personal information

overview this policy sets out how the veterinary council of new zealand (vcnz) collects, uses and stores personal information in accordance with its responsibilities under the privacy act 2020 we collect, use and store personal information to carry out our functions and activities under the veterinarians act 2005 (the act) personal information is information about an identifiable individual collection of personal information our role is to protect the public interest by ensuring that veterinarians are fit and competent to practise we will only collect personal information where it is necessary to do so, and only for a lawful purpose connected with the functions or activities of vcnz we collect personal information from those who communicate with us, including email addresses, phone numbers and names we will only retain your information for as long as is reasonably necessary for us to carry out our functions we collect personal information so that we can keep and maintain the register of veterinarians process applications for registration and annual practising certificates monitor and audit compliance with minimum standards including compliance with continuing professional development requirements develop and maintain professional standards, including providing advice carry out our complaints, investigation and discipline functions, including receiving and considering complaints and concerns about veterinarians investigate and take action where there are concerns about veterinarians’ health or competence investigate offences and bring prosecutions under the act we collect and use information in summary form in order to set and implement standards for veterinary practice promote high standards of veterinary education and conduct advise and make recommendations to the minister for primary industries and massey university on relevant veterinary issues personal information will be collected with the individual’s consent, or where it is required or authorised by law we take reasonable steps to ensure you are aware that we are collecting your information and that you understand what we will use it for and who it will be disclosed to we will only collect personal information directly from the individual unless there is a lawful reason not to in some circumstances, it will be lawful for us to both collect and use personal information from third parties this might be required as part of a third parties’ statutory function or authority vcnz will not collect personal information by unlawful means, or by means that are unfair or intrude unreasonably on an individual’s personal affairs access and correction you have the right to know what information we hold about you you can contact us to ask whether we hold any information about you request a copy of the information request correction of information if you believe it is inaccurate your rights to access and correct any information held by vcnz are subject to the privacy act 2020 we will do our best to correct any incorrect or inaccurate information as soon as we are made aware we will take steps to verify your identity before we provide you with access to any of the requested information use and disclosure of personal information we will only use your personal information for the purpose it was collected unless an exception in the privacy act 2020 applies we will not disclose your personal information to anyone unless you have authorised this, disclosure is necessary for us to carry out our functions, or we believe that disclosure is lawfulunder the privacy act 2020 in certain situations, we may be required by law to disclose your personal information we keep the personal information we hold safe by storing in a safe and secure manner we take precautions to prevent unauthorised access to private or personal information and do our best to ensure that any personal information we hold is kept secure in accordance with current good cyber security practice we take reasonable steps to ensure that third parties protect personal information that we share with them, including confidentiality agreements we do not generally share personal information with overseas entities unless we are asked to do so by the person concerned (for example, providing letters of standing to overseas regulators) where we do send personal information overseas, we will comply with the requirements of the privacy act 2020 confidentiality we sometimes collect and store information that is confidential in nature where the confidential information is not subject to the privacy act 2020, we will only use and disclose that information where doing so is necessary to carry out our functions under the act, or where disclosure is required by law breach of privacy we take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal information we collect and store is protected against loss, unauthorised access and disclosure or any other misuse, including getting and implementing external advice on good cybersecurity practices if a notifiable privacy breach takes place, we will notify the privacy commissioner and any affected parties information for website users this applies to information collected through the vcnz website we may collect, hold and use statistical information about your visits to help us improve our website this includes your ip address the search terms you used pages viewed and links clicked on date and time of website visit whether the site was visited after using a search engine or a link from another site what device you used to view the site we do not attempt to identify website users or their browsing activities unless they give us personal information while using our website you can browse and access our website without providing your personal information some pages on our website may contain links to other organisations or third parties these websites are independent of vcnz and we aren’t responsible for their privacy policies or content we currently use google analytics to track and report traffic on the vcnz website we analyse non identifiable we traffic data to improve our services you can opt out of google analytics without affecting how you view our website you can view more information on opting out here contact us please get in contact if you have concerns about the way we are managing your personal information you can contact us at vet\@vetcouncil org nz or on 04 473 9600 alternatively, you can contact us at the privacy officer veterinary council of new zealand po box 10 563 wellington 6143 we may occasionally update this policy to reflect changes to our practices this policy also applies to personal information held about members of council and its committees, staff members and other parties who do work for council information for veterinarians we make some information about registered veterinarians publicly available this is to meet our statutory obligations the following information is publicly available information on the register of veterinarians conditions on practice imposed under section 61 of the veterinarians act 2005 suspensions outcomes of judicial committee hearings where there is no name suppression the register of veterinarians the veterinarians act requires us to maintain a register of veterinarians the register can be viewed and searched through our website there is some information that we must make available to the public this includes your name, registration status and qualification we need your contact details, but these are not made publicly available unless you choose to publish them unique identifier every veterinarian is assigned a unique identifier called a registration number this takes place when someone first registers with vcnz a veterinarian’s registration number is not public information and is not normally disclosed to outside parties workforce survey we collect statistical information in order to report on workforce trends this information may be used to assist in workforce planning and summary information is analysed individuals are not identifiable in the final publication recording concerns, complaints and notifications we keep a record of complaints, notifications and enquiries that we receive about veterinarians we do this to document that the matter was considered by vcnz and the outcome that was reached we also hold this information in case a pattern of conduct or performance emerges we may review previous cases in the event of a new notification or complaint when doing this we will assess whether the information is accurate and relevant before taking it into account previous complaints or notifications may be particularly relevant where there are questions about a veterinarian’s competence retention and disposal of information about people on the register we keep the following information about people who have been registered for a period of 70 years or for the lifetime of the person concerned (whichever is shorter), including after a request for removal from the register registration application documentation any significant correspondence between us and the person records of any disciplinary action taken information about any complaints or concerns that were considered by a complaints assessment committee information about any concerns that were considered by the notification review group information about any serious competence concerns that come to our attention information about any serious health concerns that come to our attention details of any action taken by us under sections 57 or 60 of the veterinarians act as a result of a competence or health assessment details of any voluntary undertaking or other informal measure taken in response to concerns about health or competence details of any conviction that meets the criteria set out in section 50 of the veterinarians act we keep some information about registered veterinarians indefinitely this includes the entry on the register of veterinarians, including date of registration and essential personal details (e g name, date of birth) records of any proceedings before a judicial committee download a pdf version of this policy