For example. For example, this request asked for all those reports produced in 2009. Such a flag may become less relevant with the passage of time. For example, NZ Police have told people making requests via FYI that they must visit a police station to make a request in person, or fill out a particular form. If you are asking a local government body for information under the LGOIMA, they cannot ask you to provide proof of eligibility. Unlike the OIA, the LGOIMA There is nothing in the legislation which says that MPs and parliamentary research units cannot be charged for the supply of official information. 8.20 The Official Information Act balances the Act's purpose of progressively increasing the availability of official information against the need to protect official information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the preservation of personal privacy. It seemed pretty clear to me at the time that the account was operated in Mr English's official capacity as Prime Minister. It was extended by a further 20 working days on 2017‑09‑19. Generally, the two laws work the same, so this guide should still be useful to you. Unfortunately, this explanation typically comes in the vague form of saying it's necessary for them to be able to make the necessary consultations. 8.41It is good practice to indicate on Cabinet material released under the Official Information Act that it has been approved for release. APS employees may choose to submit information to, or appear as a witness before, a parliamentary committee of inquiry or a royal commission in a private capacity. Call (02) 6207 7244 from 8am-8pm daily. However, the usual approach has been to remit any charge that would otherwise have been fixed, in recognition of the public interest in MPs having access to official information to assist in the reasonable exercise of their democratic responsibilities. The agency should then take steps to make the information available to you. For example, by month or financial year. However, the usual approach has been to remit any charge that would otherwise have been fixed, in recognition of the public interest in MPs having access to official information to assist in the reasonable exercise of their democratic responsibilities. Unfortunately, it's not super clear from the OIA alone just what some of the parts of section 9 mean. Although an official or Minister could be required, under the Act, to write down information not yet in a written form, this is simply a means of making that existing information accessible to others. You can read this section of the OIA itself for specifics. Official Information Act: Charging for Services. It should be clear that the department is consulting rather than providing the request for the Minister's information, and sufficient time should be allowed for the Minister's office to raise any concerns about the proposed decision. Where a request seeks information that is particularly sensitive or potentially controversial, the Minister should also consider advising the Prime Minister's office. The policy is implemented by DoD Regulation 5400.7-R and 5200.1-R. You can check this breakdown against the Ombudsman's guidance note on, have a different person send each request. Transfers must be made promptly and within 10 working days of receiving the request, and the requester must be informed. It seemed pretty clear to me at the time that the account was operated in Mr English's official capacity as Prime Minister. 8.58 The Ministry of Justice has issued guidelines on what the government regards as reasonable charges for the purposes of the Official Information Act. 8.28The definition of information is not confined to information on paper. 8.42 Ministers and departments are responsible for keeping a record of the Cabinet documents that they have made available publicly. For example, in early 2017 I sent an OIA request via Twitter to the account @pmbillenglish, which was operated by the Prime Minister at the time, Bill English. They'll have to tell you how much time they've estimated for each chargeable activity. It is the agency's responsibility to make sure your request is handled appropriately regardless of how they received it. I commonly ask that tabular data be released in "a machine-readable spreadsheet format, such as CSV or XLSX". This means that any request for information received by a government agency is an OIA request. It's free to sign up and bid on jobs. The Office of the Ombudsman's guidance note on requests made online contains a section on page 4 on establishing eligibility under the OIA. However, you could ask for documents or internal communications about the issue that interests you. As there may be no guarantee when this will be, requesters may prefer to use officially designated channels for ministerial communication (see www.beehive.govt.nz). "Tēnā koutou" is for addressing three or more people. 8.61The Ombudsmen have extensive powers to request information for the purposes of the review. When this happens, you should consider if you could make a similar request for a smaller amount of information, or perhaps several smaller requests made over a longer period of time. You can check this breakdown against the Ombudsman's guidance note on charging to see if they are proposing to charge you for activities that can't be charged for. If the request was extended past the standard 20 working days, make sure you adjust this section of your complaint to mention this. You could also ask the agency to help you to refine your request. Local government bodies are covered by the LGOIMA rather than the OIA. that should be kept in mind when analysing this information. If the information is not held in a way that would make the breakdown I have asked for possible, I would be happy to be consulted with on how I could refine my request. The guidelines are available from the Ministry of Justice website. Departments who receive requests for the release of Cabinet material of a current government should consider whether the request should be transferred to the responsible Minister (see paragraph 8.34). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a virus (more specifically, a coronavirus) identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China. Section 6 of the OIA lays out several good reasons for withholding information, with a focus on preventing harm. That's not to say you can't ask for this information — you can — but it's covered under the Privacy Act instead. If you can collaborate with others, you could break your request up into smaller parts and Obviously, if you're not a New Zealand citizen, you should adjust this sentence accordingly. However, a high security classification or endorsement may provide a useful “flag”, indicating that there may be good reason for withholding the document (or part of it) under the Official Information Act. The provisions for withholding information laid out in section 9 of the OIA can be overridden if it is in the public interest for the information to be released. If any of the information that I have requested is unavailable or would be difficult to retrieve, but similar information might be readily available, I would be happy to discuss altering or refining my request. Or you can create a bookmarklet (a bookmark that runs some JavaScript code instead of going to a website) in your browser. It is good practice therefore to consult the author of the document before releasing it. Official information can include sound recordings, film, computer records, emails, text messages, and information known to a department, Minister, or organisation but not recorded in writing. Information held by the Attorney-General in this capacity is not, therefore, official information in terms of the Act. Assessing sensitive and security classified information You can still ask them for information, but they aren't bound by the rules of the OIA. Requests made to local government bodies under the LGOIMA don't need to include this, because the LGOIMA does not include any eligibility requirements. Having a government authority demand private information can be intimidating. If the 20 working days deadline passes and you haven't received a response from the agency, your first step should be to make sure they did receive your request. 8.64The Prime Minister may certify that the release of information would be likely to prejudice matters such as the security of New Zealand, or the Attorney-General may certify that release would be likely to prejudice such matters as the prevention of offences. While the agency is not required to respond in accordance with the requirements of the OIA, it should still deal with the request for information in an administratively reasonable manner. 8.32Ministers and officials must offer reasonable assistance to those requesting information under the Act (section 13) and assess each piece of information requested against the criteria in the Act. It also says information about changes to economic policies shouldn't be released prematurely under the OIA if that would be likely to seriously harm the economy. Agencies will often give you this information anyway, but I find it useful to include this to prompt them to let you know if there are any important limitations to the information you're requesting that you might not be aware of. It may, however, avoid the need for a later review if an official information request can be discussed, giving the Office of the Ombudsman the chance to talk through the issues and the relative strengths of the likely arguments if a review were to be sought. Since examples always help, here's a Any agency that has an email address can receive a request via FYI, and agencies that have a Twitter account or Facebook page can receive requests in that way. Keep in mind that ministers and the agencies they oversee, e.g. Basically, it says that there's a good reason to withhold information if it would be likely to harm national security, international relations, maintenance of the law, or someone's personal safety. Ministers are personally responsible for complying with the duties imposed on them by the Act. 8.36 The Act also provides requirements for the contents of the notice to the requester if it is advising of a refusal (section 19), where the information is not provided in the way preferred by the requester (section 16), or where information has been deleted or altered (section 17). But when I followed up by inquiring with the Office of the Ombudsman they agreed with what I had been told. Other Official Tax Guidance. The outcome of any consultation on Official Information Act requests should be recorded in accordance with normal, prudent business practice (see paragraph 8.96). 8.46 When considering a request, Ministers (either directly or through their office staff) should consult other Ministers who have an interest in the subject matter of the request. Have a question? This guidance explains the process in more detail.You may also like to check out the links below, as the information you need may already be publicly available: 1. It's possible there is different information they could collect more easily that would still be useful to you. This could be the time period for which you would like data, e.g. For example, by month or financial year. 1. Make sure you also include any attachments that the agency sent to you. requests may be made in any form. At the heart of the OIA is its Principle of Availability: The details of the OIA lay out exactly what counts legally as a "good reason" to withhold information, and other specifics like how quickly an agency must respond and how complaints are handled. When you make a request on FYI, it will tell you when to expect a response. The guidelines are available from the Ministry of Justice website. Subject: Official Information Act request - Original Content Broadcast Guidelines Dear Television New Zealand Limited, I am interested to know if TVNZ has any guidelines or broadcast clocks detailing (particularly for made in NZ content) how long show segments must be, and the amount of time to be set aside for commercials during broadcast. My favourite way to make OIA requests is using the website FYI.org.nz. What information can you ask for? Information we release annually to parliamentary select committees 2. The data released also included the number of contraband finds during strip searches per month, and in response to a separate request (C77649) the same information was provided for "Reasonable Cause" strip searches, according to section 98(3)(a) of the Corrections Act 2004. Remember that the due date might be different for a request made under the LGOIMA. In these cases, recipients of a request could consider the requirement in section 14 to transfer a request, or part of a request, where the information is more closely connected with the functions of another department or Minister or organisation. The Official Information Act (OIA) is a very important law that gives you and me a lot of power. Any person may request any local authority to make available to that person any specified official information. Depending on how these files have been created, them may not be able to be searched for text without additional software that can read text out of images. Taking some time to research this while writing your request can save time in the long run, as it may mean they don't need to ask you for clarification. For example, you can break up your request into multiple smaller requests and make them sequentially. Often, they will ask for your address to prove you are in New Zealand. If an Ombudsman considers that the original request should have been met, or that an unreasonable decision was taken, the Ombudsman will recommend to the Minister or department concerned the action to be taken. The transferee should be consulted before the transfer is made. Further guidance can also be found on its website. 8.31Departmental chief executives, and the boards and chief executives of agencies in the wider state sector that are subject to the Act, are responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act within their organisations. Released under the Official Information Act 1982 A transfer of a request is not subject to review by an Ombudsman under the Official Information Act, but may be investigated under the Ombudsmen Act 1975, where the transfer was made by a department or other agency subject to the Ombudsmen Act. Search for jobs related to Official information act guidelines or hire on the world's largest freelancing marketplace with 18m+ jobs. You're likely to see parts of documents withheld for these reasons, for example if you asked for correspondence an agency received about a certain topic then they'd be likely to withhold the names and contact details of people involved. To be eligible to request official information under the OIA, you must be:4. a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident; a person in New Zealand; or a corporate entity (that is, a company or an incorporated society) which is either incorporated in New Zealand or has a place of business here. Agencies can also refuse your request under section 18(d) of the OIA if the information you've asked for is, or soon will be, publicly available. In addition to participating in the promulgation of Treasury (Tax) Regulations, the IRS publishes a regular series of other forms of official tax guidance, including revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, and announcements.See Understanding IRS Guidance - A Brief Primer for more information about official IRS guidance versus non-precedential rulings or advice. These are the official guidelines for the Plain Writing Act of 2010.We developed these guidelines to help you and your agency write clearly, so your users can: The Ombudsman may also offer to discuss personally any case where his or her opinion differs from that of the holder of the information. 8.37 Ministers and departments may approach the Office of the Ombudsman for guidance about any official information request. In the meantime, you may want to think about what related information you might be able to request from the agency, or from a different agency. If you are requesting large amounts of information, especially if it's tabular data, make sure you specify that it should be released in a format that will be useful for you. In most cases, you should expect to have received an acknowledgement email saying that your request will be processed under the OIA. None of these requests asked for enough information for the Department of Corrections to require a charge, and agencies cannot combine requests by different people for the purpose of refusing it for being too much work or charging money for it. The LGOIMA also takes a break, but its one runs from the 20th of December to the 10th of January. Freedom of Information Act. 8.34 Under section 14 of the Act, the Minister or organisation that receives a request may be required to transfer it to another Minister, department, organisation, or local authority. Most commonly, requests will be refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, because it would take too much work to make the information available. If your request goes to an email or If they agree with you that the information should not have been withheld, they will make a recommendation to the agency. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a law that gives you the right to access information from the federal government. You should attach a zip file to your complaint, containing all the correspondence you've had with the agency about your request. Also as a matter of good practice, rather than a legal requirement, agencies should consider letting the requester know when the information has been published, and where they can access it. You should be able to find an appropriate email address on the agency's website. 8.30 Requests under the Official Information Act must be dealt with carefully, conscientiously, and in accordance with the law. The OIA effectively takes a break from the 25th of December to the 15th of January. "from July 2015 until the most recent month for which data is available". Please release the following information slightly edited When you make a request on FYI, it will tell you when to expect a response. In fact, contains material that relates to the activities of the other department or that may result in publicity for that department. A decision must be made and communicated to the requester as soon as practicable (and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request was received (section 15(1)). If you are, you can use the OIA even if you're not in New Zealand. These guidelines replace those approved by the State Sector Committee in January 1992 (STA (92) M 1/3) and set out in the Department of Justice memorandum of 26 February 1992. This will let you input a date (like "2017/09/03"), and be told when a response would be due for an OIA request received on that date (like "2017/09/29"). Here's a template you can use to write an OIA request. The Official Information Act 1982 (sometimes known by its acronym OIA) is a statute of the New Zealand Parliament which creates a public right of access to information held by government bodies. As well as searching the agency's website, it can be useful to search the requests already made on FYI.org.nz. Releasing the information to requestors as soon as reasonably practicable particularly where no harm or prejudice has been identified in the release of the information; Providing requestors with a specific date (or a date by which) it is expected that the information will be released; and. Unless you are asking for information specific to the minister, such as advice they have received, your request should be directed to the agency. Right to Information Act; Guidelines; Public Information Officer; First Appellate Officer; ITI. 8.24 Information held by a Minister in his or her capacity as a member of a political party or as a member of Parliament, such as caucus material, is not official information for the purposes of the Act. However, not every agency will know this. This is because saying you are in New Zealand may effectively prompt some agencies to ask for your address as proof of your eligibility. You don't need to provide any information you don't want to, though an agency may refuse to fulfil your request if they can't establish eligibility. rather than the minister's office, then it won't count. The originator must determine whether information being generated is official information (intended for use as an official record) and whether that information is sensitive or security classified.. Requirement 2. As at 1 October 2010 the charges are inclusive of GST at 15%. If you can't find an agency on FYI's list, they might fall under this category. Section 10(1) of the LGOIMA says: See the Ombudsman’s Making official information requests - A guide for requesters (Ombudsman website), or the State Services Commission guide (SSC website) explaining how agencies will respond to requesters. The email addresses for ministers can be found on www.beehive.govt.nz. Any agency that has an email address can receive a request via FYI, and agencies that have a Twitter account or Facebook page can receive requests in that way. Any such Order in Council: Your feedback is very important in helping us improve the DPMC website. There are some public bodies that are not covered by the OIA. 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