98   Public health and disease registers

(1)  The Director-General may establish and maintain, or arrange for the establishment and maintenance of, a register of a kind specified by an order under this Division.

(2)  The Director-General may enter into an agreement or arrangement with any other person for the establishment or maintenance, or both, of any such register.

(3)  The Director-General may enter into an agreement or arrangement with a local government authority or government or non-government agency, or any other person, for the provision and use of information for the purposes of any such register.

(4)  A public health organisation must, if directed to do so in writing by the Director-General, provide information for the purposes of any such register.

(5)  A register must not contain identifying particulars of a person, except with the consent of the person.

(6)  The Director-General or a person authorised in writing by the Director-General for that purpose may provide personal information about a person to a health records linkage organisation for the purpose of establishing and providing a unique identifier number to be used for the purposes of a register.

(7)  In this section:

health records linkage organisation means a body approved as a health records linkage organisation by the Director-General from time to time for the purposes of this section.

personal information has the same meaning as it has in the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.