Undertakings and declarations

You are bound by your microdata undertaking, whether it is signed by your organisation’s Responsible Officer on your behalf or you sign it yourself, so it is important that you read and understand it.

Undertakings are not required for access to TableBuilder.

The Responsible Officer is usually the CEO or equivalent for the organisation.

• For Universities: a Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Pro Vice-Chancellor or University Registrar.
• For Government Departments: Statutory Head, Secretary of Department, Head of Agency or equivalent, as agreed with the ABS.
• For all other organisations: a person who has the same legal responsibility for the actions of the entity as a Departmental Secretary does for a Government Department. This will usually be someone with the status of CEO, Company Secretary or Managing Director.

Alternatively, the Responsible Officer may be another person in your organisation with a suitable delegation. Should an organisation wish to delegate the role of Responsible Officer to an alternative level this delegation must be provided to the ABS in writing. The delegation must come from an appropriate level, as outlined above.

For example, if a government department would like to delegate the role of responsible officer to its' Chief Data Officer, it would be appropriate for the Secretary of the Department to write to the ABS to outline their delegation (email is sufficient).

The ABS withholds the right to refuse a delegation to a lower level of an organisation. A Responsible Officer who has had the role delegated to them will be subject to the same rules, regulations and consequences of breach as any other Responsible Officer.

ABS legislation requires that the Responsible Officer for an organisation must submit a microdata undertaking before microdata access can be granted by ABS. The Responsible Officer is legally accountable for use of microdata by their organisation.

Organisations also need to nominate Contact Officers to liaise with the ABS about microdata matters.

Responsible Officers sign an Undertaking on behalf of the users within their organisation in order to access microdata. Users may also be required to sign an Individual Undertaking. As a microdata user, you must comply with the requirements for accessing microdata as outlined in the Responsible Officer Undertaking and Individual Undertaking for microdata access.

Where a person is suspected to have breached a microdata undertaking the ABS will investigate and may: 

• immediately suspend their access to all microdata
• inform the organisation's Contact and Responsible Officers that an investigation is underway
• require that they surrender all microdata in their possession to their organisation's Contact Officer or to the ABS

Following the investigation and depending on the nature of the breach, the ABS may require the development and implementation of strategies to:

• restrict or overcome the consequences of the breach
• ensure no repetition of the breach

Depending on the success of these strategies and the severity of the breach, the ABS may:

• reactivate the suspended access
• extend suspension temporarily or permanently
• suspend or terminate access for the organisation as a whole

The ABS may also invoke Subsection 19 (3) of the Census and Statistics Act 1905 which provides that a person who fails to comply with an undertaking given by that person in respect of microdata is guilty of an indictable offence, punishable on conviction by a fine of 120 penalty units ($39,600 as at 7 November 2024) or imprisonment for two years, or both.

While ABS must treat breaches of the microdata undertakings very seriously we would much rather help you and your organisation avoid the possibility of a breach. If at any time, you are unsure about your or your organisation's compliance with a microdata undertaking contact data.services@abs.gov.au so we can discuss the circumstances.