Data Sharing and Governance Act 2019

Rules, procedures and standards

64. (1) The Minister may, for the purposes referred to in subsection (2), prescribe rules, procedures and standards in relation to—

(a) the operation and use of base registries,

(b) the accessing of personal data by persons—

(i) employed by, or holding an office or other position in a public body, or

(ii) employed by a person acting for or on behalf of a public body,

(c) the recording of information relating to the accessing of personal data held by, or for or on behalf of, public bodies,

(d) the management, preparation and publication of information for re-use by persons other than public bodies,

(e) the processing of personal data by a public body designated in an order made under section 10 (4),

(f) the conduct of data protection impact assessments by public bodies, and

(g) other matters relating to the management of information held by public bodies.

(2) The purposes referred to in subsection (1) are as follows:

(a) to improve the quality and accuracy of information created, held and maintained by public bodies;

(b) to promote increased sharing of information between public bodies in accordance with this Act and any other enactment providing for such sharing of information;

(c) to ensure a consistent approach to the management of information by public bodies so as to facilitate the exchange of information between them;

(d) to increase the usefulness of information held by public bodies for the purposes of—

(i) performing their functions,

(ii) modernising and developing public services,

(iii) evaluating the effectiveness of services provided by public bodies, and

(iv) evaluating the effectiveness of expenditure by public bodies;

(e) to ensure that information is managed by public bodies in accordance with international best practice as regards data protection;

(f) to improve the availability and accessibility for re-use and redistribution of information, other than personal data, held by public bodies.

(3) A rule, procedure or standard prescribed under subsection (1)(a) shall apply to information—

(a) collected for statistical purposes in accordance with the Statistics Act 1993 , or

(b) disclosed in accordance with regulations made under section 2 of the Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1952 .