New South Wales Bills New South Wales Bills[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]
This is a Bill, not an Act. For current law, see the Acts databases.
New South Wales
Police Integrity Commission
Amendment Bill 2012
Contents
Page
1 Name of Act 2
2 Commencement 2
Schedule 1 Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28 3
b2011-153-06.d10
New South Wales
Police Integrity Commission
Amendment Bill 2012
No , 2012
A Bill for
An Act to amend the Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 to implement
recommendations arising from the statutory review of the Act under section 146; and
for other purposes.
Clause 1 Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
The Legislature of New South Wales enacts: 1
1 Name of Act 2
This Act is the Police Integrity Commission Amendment Act 2012. 3
2 Commencement 4
This Act commences on the date of assent to this Act. 5
Page 2
Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28 Schedule 1
Schedule 1 Amendment of Police Integrity 1
Commission Act 1996 No 28 2
[1] Section 3 3
Omit the section. Insert instead: 4
3 Principal objects of Act 5
The principal objects of this Act are: 6
(a) to establish an independent, accountable body whose 7
principal function is to detect, investigate and prevent 8
police corruption and other serious officer misconduct, 9
and 10
(b) to provide special mechanisms for the detection, 11
investigation and prevention of serious officer misconduct 12
and other officer misconduct, and 13
(c) to protect the public interest by preventing and dealing 14
with officer misconduct, and 15
(d) to provide for the auditing and monitoring of particular 16
aspects of the operations and procedures of the NSW 17
Police Force and the New South Wales Crime 18
Commission. 19
[2] Section 4 Definitions 20
Insert in alphabetical order: 21
officer misconduct means police misconduct, corrupt conduct of 22
an administrative officer or misconduct of a Crime Commission 23
officer. 24
[3] Section 4 (1A) 25
Insert after section 4 (1): 26
(1A) Serious and other misconduct 27
References in provisions of this Act to "serious" officer 28
misconduct and "other" officer misconduct are intended for 29
general guidance and are not intended to indicate a precise 30
distinction between the two concepts. 31
[4] Section 5 Police misconduct 32
Omit section 5 (4). 33
Page 3
Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
Schedule 1 Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28
[5] Sections 13-13C 1
Omit the sections. Insert instead: 2
13 Principal functions 3
(1) The principal functions of the Commission are as follows: 4
(a) to prevent officer misconduct, 5
(b) to detect or investigate, or manage or oversee other 6
agencies in the detection or investigation of, officer 7
misconduct, 8
(c) to receive and assess all matters not completed by the 9
Police Royal Commission, to treat any investigations or 10
assessments of the Police Royal Commission as its own, to 11
initiate or continue the investigation of any such matters 12
where appropriate, and otherwise to deal with those 13
matters under this Act, and to deal with records of the 14
Police Royal Commission as provided by this Act. 15
(2) The Commission is, as far as practicable, required to turn its 16
attention principally to serious officer misconduct. 17
(3) The reference in this section to managing other agencies in the 18
detection or investigation of officer misconduct is a reference to 19
the provision by the Commission of detailed guidance in the 20
planning and execution of such detection or investigation. 21
(4) The reference in this section to overseeing other agencies in the 22
detection or investigation of officer misconduct is a reference to 23
the provision by the Commission of a lower level of such 24
guidance, relying rather on a system of guidelines prepared by it 25
and progress reports and final reports furnished to it. 26
(5) In managing or overseeing other agencies for the purposes of this 27
section, the Commission does not have a power of control or 28
direction, and any such management or oversight is to be 29
achieved by agreement. However, it is the duty of members of the 30
NSW Police Force and Crime Commission officers to co-operate 31
with the Commission in the exercise of its management and 32
oversight functions and any other functions of the Commission. 33
(6) However, nothing in subsection (2), (3), (4) or (5): 34
(a) affects the capacity of the Commission to exercise any of 35
the functions referred to in subsection (1), or 36
(b) provides a ground for any appeal or other legal or 37
administrative challenge to the exercise by the 38
Commission of any of those functions. 39
Page 4
Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28 Schedule 1
[6] Section 33 Public and private hearings 1
Insert after section 33 (3): 2
(3A) Without limiting the factors that it may take into account in 3
determining whether or not it is in the public interest to conduct 4
a hearing wholly or partly in public, the Commission is to 5
consider the following: 6
(a) the benefit of exposing to the public, and making it aware 7
of, officer misconduct, 8
(b) the seriousness of the allegation or complaint being 9
investigated, 10
(c) any risk of undue prejudice to a person's reputation 11
(including by not holding the hearing in public), 12
(d) whether the public interest in exposing the matter is 13
outweighed by the public interest in preserving the privacy 14
of the persons concerned. 15
[7] Section 75B Duty to notify Commission of possible corrupt conduct of 16
administrative officers 17
Omit the section. 18
[8] Section 75D Duty to notify PIC of possible misconduct of Crime 19
Commission officers 20
Omit the section. 21
[9] Part 4C 22
Insert after Part 4B: 23
Part 4C Reporting misconduct 24
75D Duty to notify Commission of possible officer misconduct (cf ICAC 25
Act s 11) 26
(1) This section applies to the following officers: 27
(a) the Ombudsman, 28
(b) the Crime Commissioner, 29
(c) the Commissioner of Police, 30
(d) the principal officer of a public authority, 31
(e) an officer who constitutes a public authority. 32
Page 5
Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
Schedule 1 Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28
(2) An officer to whom this section applies is under a duty to report 1
to the Commission any matter that the officer suspects on 2
reasonable grounds concerns or may concern officer misconduct. 3
(3) The Commission may issue guidelines as to what matters need or 4
need not be reported. 5
(4) This section has effect despite any duty of secrecy or other 6
restriction on disclosure. 7
(5) For the purposes of this section, the regulations may prescribe 8
who is the principal officer of a public authority, but in the 9
absence of regulations applying in relation to a particular public 10
authority, the principal officer is the person who is the head of the 11
authority, its most senior officer or the person normally entitled 12
to preside at its meetings. 13
[10] Section 89 Principal functions of Inspector 14
Insert after section 89 (1) (b): 15
(b1) to deal with (by reports and recommendations) conduct 16
amounting to maladministration (including, without 17
limitation, delay in the conduct of investigations and 18
unreasonable invasions of privacy) by the Commission or 19
officers of the Commission, and 20
[11] Section 89 (1A) 21
Insert after section 89 (1): 22
(1A) Without affecting the power of the Inspector to make a report 23
under Part 8, the Inspector may, at any time: 24
(a) make a recommendation or report concerning any matter 25
relating to the functions of the Inspector under this section 26
that the Inspector considers may effectively be dealt with 27
by recommendation or report under this section, and 28
(b) provide the report or recommendation (or any relevant part 29
of it) to the Commission, an officer of the Commission, a 30
person who made a complaint or any other affected person. 31
[12] Section 101 Special reports 32
Insert "any of the following" after "on". 33
Page 6
Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28 Schedule 1
[13] Section 101 (c) 1
Insert after section 101 (b): 2
(c) any other matter relating to the exercise of a function to 3
audit, deal with or assess any matter under section 89 that 4
the Inspector considers warrants the making, in the public 5
interest, of a special report. 6
[14] Section 137A 7
Insert after section 137: 8
137A Persons to be heard 9
(1) Before including in a report any comment about a person that the 10
Commission or the Inspector considers is adverse, the 11
Commission or Inspector must, so far as practicable: 12
(a) inform that person of the substance of the grounds of the 13
adverse comment, and 14
(b) give the person an opportunity to make submissions. 15
(2) The Commission is taken to have complied with this section if it 16
has held a hearing under section 32 at which the person who is the 17
subject of the adverse comment concerned was informed of the 18
substance of the grounds of the adverse comment and given an 19
opportunity to make submissions. 20
(3) This section applies only to the following reports: 21
(a) a report by the Commission in relation to any matter that 22
has been or is the subject of an investigation by the 23
Commission, 24
(b) a report by the Inspector in relation to any complaint. 25
[15] Section 146 Review of Act 26
Omit "A further such review is" from section 146 (2A). 27
Insert instead "Further such reviews are". 28
[16] Section 146 (2A) 29
Insert "and after the period of 5 years from the date of assent to the Police 30
Integrity Commission Amendment Act 2012" after "2005". 31
Page 7
Police Integrity Commission Amendment Bill 2012
Schedule 1 Amendment of Police Integrity Commission Act 1996 No 28
[17] Schedule 3 Savings, transitional and other provisions 1
Omit clause 1. Insert instead: 2
1 Savings and transitional regulations 3
(1) The regulations may contain provisions of a savings or 4
transitional nature consequent on the enactment of this Act or any 5
Act that amends this Act. 6
(2) Any such provision may, if the regulations so provide, take effect 7
from the date of assent to the Act concerned or a later date. 8
(3) To the extent to which any such provision takes effect from a date 9
that is earlier than the date of its publication on the 10
NSW legislation website, the provision does not operate so as: 11
(a) to affect, in a manner prejudicial to any person (other than 12
the State or an authority of the State), the rights of that 13
person existing before the date of its publication, or 14
(b) to impose liabilities on any person (other than the State or 15
an authority of the State) in respect of anything done or 16
omitted to be done before the date of its publication. 17
[18] Schedule 3, Part 11 18
Insert after Part 10: 19
Part 11 Provision consequent on enactment of 20
Police Integrity Commission Amendment 21
Act 2012 22
22 Reports 23
Section 137A (as inserted by the Police Integrity Commission 24
Amendment Act 2012) does not apply to reports prepared before 25
the commencement of that section. 26
Page 8
[Index] [Search] [Download] [Related Items] [Help]