EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES No 315 of 1988
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES (CONFIDENTIALITY) ACT 1981
EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES (CONFIDENTIALITY) REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
Section 13 of the Epidemiological Studies (Confidentiality) Act 1981 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
The purpose of the Act is to provide for the confidentiality of information collected in certain epidemiological studies conducted by, or on behalf of, the Commonwealth.
Subsection 3(1) of the Act defines “prescribed study” to mean the Vietnam Veterans Study or a Commonwealth epidemiological study which is declared by the regulations to be a study to which the Act applies. “Commonwealth epidemiological study” is defined to be an epidemiological study conducted by, or on behalf of, the Commonwealth.
Nine studies have already been declared to be epidemiological studies to which the Act applies. The Regulation amends Regulation 3 of the Epidemiological Studies (Confidentiality) Regulations to declare a further study to be an epidemiological study to which the Act applies. The purpose of the study is to determine the extent of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus in intravenous drug users. The study is being conducted on behalf of the Commonwealth by the Commonwealth AIDS Research Grants Committee Working Party on AIDS in Intravenous Drug Users.
The study involves the interviewing of intravenous drug users. In order to obtain the co-operation of participants, it is imperative that they are able to be assured of complete confidentiality. Prescribing of the study will mean that it is an offence under the Act for a person involved in the conduct of a study to divulge or publish information that would enable the identification of individual participants.
The Regulation came into operation on the date of its notification in the Gazette.