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Media release

Chief Ombudsman publishes OIA and LGOIMA complaints information

Issue date:

The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has published his half-yearly data on Official Information Act and Local Government Official Information Act complaints.

The data covers the number of complaints received and the number completed by the Ombudsman in the period 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2022.

The number of complaints about Official Information Act (OIA) responses received was 1309. However, this included close to 550 from one complainant regarding responses from school boards of trustees.

“It is unusual to receive such a large number of complaints from just one person at the same time. This has created an anomaly in our data for this six-month period,” Mr Boshier says.

“The total number of complaints put a huge amount of pressure on the resources of my office but I applaud my staff for their hard work in being able to complete 1141 OIA complaints in the past six months.

“It has had an impact on other aspects of my work, however, and my office is still dealing with a very large workload.”

A total of 2201 OIA complaints were received in the year to 30 June 2022, and the number completed 1807.

In the six months to 30 June 2022, 206 complaints about Local Government Official information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) responses were received by the Ombudsman, and 155 were completed.

For the year to 30 June 2022, the number of LGOIMA complaints was 358. The number completed was 266.

The biannual data published today covers complaints about both Acts for the period 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2022.

As well as the Ombudsman’s data, Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission published its half-yearly data on OIA requests received by agencies, and their response times.

Mr Boshier has acknowledged the work of the Commission to increase the amount of data published on agency compliance with the OIA.

“I am reassured by the Public Service Commissioner Peter Hughes’ commitment to open and transparent government and ensuring agencies are meeting their obligations with the publication of this expanded data,” Mr Boshier says.

Overview of data

Complaints received

Complaint type 

Received 

Individual 

Media 

Other[1] 

LGOIMA

206

155

36

15

OIA

1309

572

110

627

Complaints completed

Complaint type 

Completed 

Individual 

Media 

Other[2

LGOIMA

155

122

12

21

OIA

1141

444

108

589

Received - reasons

Complaint type 

Delay in decision 

Refusal in full 

Refusal in part 

Incomplete / inadequate response 

Extension 

Other[3] 

LGOIMA

41

60

55

30

9

11

OIA

709

255

146

76

51

72

Footnotes

[1] This includes all city, district and regional councils, as well as council controlled organisations, community boards, domain boards, public reserves boards and licensing trusts among others.

[2] For the LGOIMA, this comprises special interest groups and companies, associations, and incorporated societies.

For the OIA, this comprises departments, government organisations, or local authorities; companies, associations, incorporated societies; political party research units; special interest groups; trade unions; researchers; Members of Parliament; and review agencies (eg: HDC, IPCA).

[3] For the LGOIMA, this comprises decisions not made as soon as practicable, charge, manner or form of release, delay in releasing information, refusal - personal information about body corporate, Privacy Act request, extension, and other.

For the OIA, it comprises Privacy Act requests, charges, delay in releasing information, decisions not made as soon as reasonably practicable, refusal - statement of reasons, refusal – internal rules and guidelines, refusal - personal information about body corporate, manner or form of release, and other.

Contact: Lucy Bennett, 0221 038 687 or [email protected]

About the data

The data released by the Ombudsman concerns both OIA and LGOIMA complaints received and completed from 1 January 2022 to 30 June 2022. It includes information on the number of complaints received by Minister or agency, the nature of the complaint and type of complainant (media, private individual, etc). For the complaints completed, the data also includes the outcome of the complaint.

The data does not enable a direct comparison among agencies, as complaints data on its own does not give the full picture. The number of complaints received by the Ombudsman may be a very small proportion of the total number of OIA or LGOIMA requests received by an agency.

See the Ombudsman’s complaints data

FAQs on official information complaint data publications can be found here.

More guidance is available here.

Shortly after the Ombudsman publishes complaints and outcomes data, Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission publishes its own data on OIA requests received by agencies and their response times.

This data can be viewed here this morning.

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