As part of the Commonwealth-State Disability Agreement (CSDA), the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments agreed to provide each other with information about disability programmes and consumers of disability services. This information is to be used for planning purposes, national programme evaluation and to monitor achievement of programme objectives and agreed priorities. Accordingly, a Minimum Data Set (MDS) has been developed by a Commonwealth-State committee with the assistance of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).