Training Ordered For Health New Zealand Official Information Act Teams

A complaint by ASMS into how Health New Zealand handles Official Information Act requests has been upheld by the Ombudsman.

Both ASMS’ policy and communications teams have had numerous issues getting OIA requests back from Health New Zealand in a timely manner.

The main complaint is that responses occur very close to the OIA deadline and often then request an extension.

An investigation from the ombudsman into one such request found, “At the time HNZ advised that it had made a decision on your request, the necessary work to provide a response had not yet been completed.”

“As a result, I have formed the final opinion that there has been a failure to meet the requirements imposed by the OIA. HNZ’s decision was invalid, and was therefore in breach of section 15(1) of the OIA and contrary to law,” chief ombudsman Peter Boshier wrote in his decision.

The ombudmsman says improvements are needed by HNZ and he recommended several changes that HNZ will introduce.

These include, “weekly refreshers on OIA legislation, mandatory completion of training provided by the Ombudsman for its OIA advisors, clearer communication in its responses to requesters and regular quality assurance testing across OIAs received.”

This decision was reported to the Minister of Health.