PID Advice

We have a function under the Public Interest Disclosures Act 2022 (PID Act) to provide information, advice, assistance and training to agencies and public officials on matters relevant to the Act.

Our PID Advice team provides general advice to:

• agencies and their staff to help them handle PIDs and comply with their obligations under the PID Act, and
• actual and potential PID-makers to help them understand agency obligations in dealing with a PID, as well as the protections and support available to them when they report serious wrongdoing.

If you have questions about the PID Act, you can contact us by telephone at 1800 710 277 or by email at pidadvice@ombo.nsw.gov.au.

The following table shows what we can and cannot do when providing PID advice. 

When we provide advice, we are limited to providing general advice about the PID Act and its operation.

We cannot provide specific advice to agencies about particular PID matters. For example, we cannot provide advice on how an agency should handle a particular PID or the decisions and actions an agency or public official takes when exercising their functions under the PID Act.

We are limited to providing general advice because we must:

• remain fair and impartial in relation to PID matters 
• avoid giving rise to any conflicts that could prevent us from:
  • handling a disclosure if it is made to us later
  • providing advice to both PID makers and PID recipients
  • receiving and investigating complaints about how an agency or public official handled a PID.

Although we provide PID advice, we are not disclosure officers for the Ombudsman’s Office, and we cannot receive PIDs.

If you wish to make a PID to the Ombudsman’s Office, you can contact our complaint handlers:

• By telephone: 1800 451 524 between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM from Monday to Friday
• Or through our Online complaint form

If you would like further information on how to make a PID, you can visit our webpage: Reporting serious wrongdoing in the NSW public sector.

In addition to providing advice, the Ombudsman has other functions under the PID Act which include providing training to agencies and public officials, and auditing and monitoring how agencies exercise their functions under the Act.

There is a PID Unit in the Ombudsman’s Office with responsibility for supporting these different functions.

The following table includes contact information for each team.