Official Information Act requests

The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) allows you to request official information held by all New Zealand government agencies, including Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora. The people and groups able to make an OIA request are:

• citizens
• permanent residents
• visitors to New Zealand
• body corporates registered or with a place of business in New Zealand.

At Health NZ we strive to be fair and open. We will make information available unless there is a good reason to withhold it.

• Internal policies and processes.
• Generalised health data.
• Contracts.
• Information about health providers.

Before making a request, please look at what we have already published. You might find the information you want is already available in our publications section, or on the Ministry of Health website.

If you cannot find the information you are looking for, please email our OIA team at hnzOIA@tewhatuora.govt.nz

What to include in your email

• your name
• a contact address – either email or postal
• a contact phone number
• details of the information you want – this needs to be as clear and specific as you can make it. We may ask you for more details.

You can also tell us if you are happy to receive the information in a different way – like an oral briefing, a viewing or a summary.

We will let you know that we got your request. The OIA says we need to tell you if we can give you the information as soon as possible, and no later than 20 working days after we get your request.

If we need more time for your request – for instance if you have asked for a lot of information – we will let you know and give you an idea of how long it will take.

It is free to request information. We can charge a fee if it takes a lot of work to get the information you ask for. This fee must be reasonable, and if we need to do this we will discuss it with you.

Under the OIA, information should be made available unless there is a good reason not to. The reasons to withhold information are laid out in the Act.  If we decline your request, we will tell you why.

We publish our responses to OIA requests soon after we send that response to the person who requested it.

The response letter includes:

• what information we are releasing
• if we have withheld any information
• why we have withheld any information.

These responses are on our Publications page. The documents are only available in PDF format and are listed from newest to oldest.

The name and email address of the person who made the request is removed before we publish the response.

Often, we will release information before anyone asks for it. These documents are also on or publications page. To find them select 'Information Release'. Information releases include things like

• Board and Board Committee agendas
• Board and Board Committee minutes
• Cabinet papers
• situation briefings.

 The Office of the Ombudsman oversees responses to OIA requests. You can complain to the Office of the Ombudsman if you:

• are concerned about the decision we made on your request
• are unhappy about the way your request was treated or processed.

Contact the Office of the Ombudsman

Website: Office of the Ombudsman

Phone: 0800 802 602

Email: info@ombudsman.parliament.nz

Postal address: PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143

You can ask the ombudsman if you’re unhappy with the way we responded, including:

• withholding information
• extending the time it takes to respond to you
• any charges for providing the information you've requested
• taking too long to give you our decision or the information
• your request being transferred to another government agency.

The Office of the Ombudsman can investigate and review our decision and may make a recommendation to us.