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Privacy Act 2020

About the code

The Health Information Privacy Code 2020 (HIPC) covers health information about identifiable individuals that is collected, used, held, and disclosed by health agencies. It takes the place of the information privacy principles (IPPs) for the health sector and applies to:

• all agencies providing personal or public health or disability services such as primary health organisations, rest homes, supported accommodation, doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and optometrists;
  
  
• and some agencies that do not provide health services to individuals but which are part of the health sector such as ACC, the Ministry of Health, the Health Research Council, health insurers and professional disciplinary bodies.

We have amended the HIPC twice. In March 2026 we issued Amendment No 2 to the code to reflect new Information Privacy Principle 3A (IPP3A).

In May 2022 we issued Amendment No 1 to address structural changes in the health sector.

Read our summary factsheets 

• Factsheet 1: Overview
• Factsheet 2: Collection of Information
• Factsheet 3: Disclosure of Information
• Factsheet 4: Dealing with Access Requests
• Factsheet 5: Storage, Security, Retention and Disposal of Health Information