The area where the two acts intersect is in the definition of personal information. Section 19 of the Access to Information Act is an exemption to disclosure for personal information under the access to information regime. In that section, it refers to the definition of personal information in the Privacy Act. That's most of how the two acts intersect.
The recommendations we're making with regard to section 19 are also anchored on the experiences we have had in relation to our investigations over the last 30 years. In our report we mentioned that the personal information exemption under the access regime was applied in 20,000 out of 60,000 requests at the time, so that's a lot, one out of three. We're recommending changes to clarify what happens in our investigations. The Privacy Commissioner is not in agreement with those changes.
One of the changes we're suggesting is that there should be an invasion of privacy test. This occurs to us in our investigations when we have requests for disclosure of personal information and people are deceased; parents are trying to obtain information on their deceased children. The Ashley Smith case comes to mind. There are other cases where people have died in difficult circumstances in jail, and parents are trying to obtain information from incarceration authorities or police authorities about what happened to their children. The exemption for personal information is used, and we're basically suggesting that there should be a test for invasion of privacy, because in those situations there could be disclosure on compassionate grounds. We're already working with police forces in order to get that kind of disclosure. These are extremely difficult situations for the relatives of these people.
The other aspect we are recommending really has to do with when to seek or not to seek consent. This is really merely a clarification in terms of our investigation because this is something we encounter quite a lot. We're not proposing any significant changes to the definitions otherwise.