NSW: A New Framework to Improve Access to Domestic Violence Support Services

This week the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Amendment (Information Sharing) Act 2013 (NSW) received Royal Assent. The new Act establishes an innovative framework for the sharing of essential information relating to victims and alleged offenders of domestic violence, enabling agencies and non-government support services to co-operate to respond appropriately to the needs of people experiencing domestic violence in NSW.

Current Inadequacies

The new scheme seeks to address major systemic barriers to the delivery of effective services including inconsistent approaches to sharing personal identification and health information in domestic violence cases among government agencies and few victims being referred to services, especially by police due to lack of a consistent referral approach.

The new framework addresses other issues including:

• Policy inability to refer people to services because many victims are not able to give valid consent to information sharing at the time of a domestic violence incident;

• Widespread confusion within government agencies about processes for requesting victim’s consent and about circumstances when consent is not required;

• A lack of consistent procedures for safeguarding personal information.

A New Framework

The amendments will adjust the application of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 to take out restrictions that could limit or preclude collaboration between agencies responding to the needs of victims of domestic violence. In particular the new Act:

• Will allow support agencies to collect information from police without the consent of the alleged victim or alleged perpetrator. Generally, victim consent will be required for all sharing after the initial police referral;

• Will allow for the collection, use and disclosure of information without consent if a person’s life, health or safety is in danger in circumstances where an agency believes on reasonable grounds, that the collection, use or disclosure of the information is essential to avert or lessen a serious threat to the life, health or safety of a person; where the threat relates to the a domestic violence offence; and where it is unreasonable or unrealistic to acquire the consent of the person to whom the information relates;

• Provides for new information-sharing protocols to provide improved privacy protections including confidentiality provisions, and ensuring that non-government support services can appropriately manage individuals’ personal and health information.

The new amendments, in combination with the recently announced reform to allow police to issue provisional apprehended domestic violence orders are a key part of the NSW Domestic Violence Justice Strategy, aiming to improve the criminal justice system’s responsiveness to the immediate needs of victims of domestic violence. The Strategy builds on the work of projects such as the Domestic Violence Intervention Court Model trial and recommendations made by the NSW Auditor-General, state and federal law reform commissions and the NSW Legislative Council Standing Committee on Social Issues Inquiry into Domestic Violence Trends and Issues.

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