21 December 2020
Ref: DOIA 2021-0120
Kiat Bazin
Email: [FYI request #13228 email]
Dear Kiat Bazin
Thank you for your email received by Ministry of Health (MoH) on 3 July 2020 requesting the following
information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please provide the following information relating to the use of the Pullman Hotel and the
Stamford Plaza Hotel as Covid-19 Managed Isolation Facilities:
1.
all internal rules, guidelines and processes followed for selecting the above-named
hotels as Managed Isolation Facilities.
2.
all communications with the above-named hotels relating to their use as Managed
Isolation Facilities, including but not limited to their health and safety plans.
3.
any enquires and complaints you received with regards to health and safety of using the
above-named hotels as Covid-19 Managed Isolation Facilities, and your responses to
these enquires and complaints.
Your request was transferred to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on
15 July 2020 to respond to. On 30 September 2020, MBIE responded to part one of your request.
This is a response to parts two and three of your request.
Question Two
As indicated in our previous response, MBIE took over management of Managed Isolation and
Quarantine (MIQ) on 13 July 2020. As such, MBIE does not necessarily hold information that relates to
decisions made prior to that time when MIQ was managed by the MoH as part of an All-of-Government
National Crisis Management Centre response.
I can confirm that MBIE does not hold any communications with the Pullman Hotel in relation to its use
as a Managed Isolation Facility (MIF); therefore, I am refusing this part of your request under section
18(e) of the Act, as the document alleged to contain the information requested does not exist or,
despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
With respect to the Stamford Plaza Hotel, the documents included are as follows:
1. Stamford Plaza Auckland Daily Contact Tracing Logbook (example).
2. Plaza Auckland Risk Register with hotel’s comments/actions (based on template prepared by
MIQ).
3. Stamford Plaza Auckland Standard Operating Procedures for Housekeeping Procedures.
4. Stamford Plaza Auckland Disinfection Checklist.
5. Stamford Plaza Auckland Protocols and Best Practice for Covid-19 Managed Isolation.
6. Stamford Plaza Auckland Health and Safety Slides (summaries Protocols and Best Practice) (NB:
also includes Risk Register noted in 2. above).
7. Hotel Fire System Description.
8. Log of request made by the Body Corporate dated 26 June 2020, including the mitigations
measures addressing those request, prepared by Stamford Plaza Auckland.
9. Regional Isolation and Quarantine Command Centre (RIQCC) Stamford Plaza: Health and Safety
Plan (with risk register and action plans). (NB: This document was provided to the Body Corporate
Chairman on 17 July 2020. Please note that this document may now be out of date, as best practice is
adjusted to meet ongoing requirements).
10. Managed Isolation Facility (MIF) Manager Quick Guide (NB: please note that information contained
in this document is, or may be, out of date in parts. Due to the nature of this work, protocols, processes
and best practice are constantly being updated and modified or corrected when new information comes
to hand. Any guides or standard operating procedures were prepared ‘at pace’ in response to curbing the
spread of COVID-19 in New Zealand 1).
11. Establishing a MIF, quick guide to set up, V3, as at 10 April 2020. (NB: Please note that the
information contained in this document is, or may be out of date in parts, or is now inaccurate following
further consideration of the information and updates to legislation, e.g. charging individuals to stay in
MIQFs and testing procedures on days 3 and 12, etc. This is because the facilities needed to be set up ‘at
pace’ and guidelines prepared swiftly in good faith to guide each hotel and MIQ staff).
Some information has been withheld under the following sections of the Act:
•
6(c), as the making available of the information would be likely to prejudice the maintenance of
the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences, and the right to a fair
trial;
•
9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons;
•
9(2)(b)(ii), to protect information where the making available of the information would be likely
unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the
subject of the information;
•
9(2)(g)(ii), to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the protection of such
Ministers, members of organisations, officers, and employees from improper pressure or
harassment; and
•
9(2)(h), to maintain legal professional privilege.
I do not consider that the withholding of this information is outweighed by public interest
considerations in making the information available.
The documents that have been withheld under section 9(2)(b)(ii) are:
•
All floor plans as part of the Fire Egress and Fire Safety Plan.
1 In particular, the section on Packages is out of date. Operating practices have varied across regions and facilities and the subject of search
and seizure has been an area of ongoing development. We are working to standardise the policy and guidance about searching. Everything we
do in Managed Isolation and Quarantine must balance both the workers and the arrivals’/returnees’ public health, safety and security needs, as
well as ensuring human rights are protected. We are also committed to working on continuous improvement of our systems and processes.
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Question Three
MBIE is not aware of any complaints with regards to the health and safety of using the Pullman Hotel as
a MIF; therefore, I am refusing this part of your request under section 18(e) of the Act.
As noted in response to question two herein, the documents provided to you set out the concerns that
the Stamford Residences Body Corporate had with the use of the Stamford Plaza Hotel as a MIF when it
was first identified to be established as a MIF.
Moreover, throughout the process of bringing the Stamford Plaza on board as a MIF, MIQ officials were
in close contact with the Hotel and the Body Corporate, which included a phone conversation with the
Hon Dr Megan Woods, Air Commodore Darryn Webb and the Chairperson of the Stamford Residents
Body Corporate on 1 July.
In terms of other complaints in this regard, MBIE is aware that Hon Dr Megan Woods’s office responded
to several concerns raised separately by a tenant, a resident and a Member of Parliament who was in
contact with several tenants and residents.
The Minister’s office response to the concerns raised noted that the Government’s Auckland Regional
Isolation Quarantine (A-RIQ) team had engaged with hotel management to work through the concerns
raised by residents and to ensure appropriate mitigations were in place to keep residents, hotel staff
and managed isolation guests safe. This involved addressing and mitigating a number of health and
safety considerations raised by the resident’s body corporate, including confirmation of the following:
•
Residents will have sole use of the gym and pool facilities. These will not be accessed by guests
in managed isolation.
•
Levels 3 and 4 of the hotel will only be used by MIF staff. No managed isolation guests will be
able to access these floors. Levels 3 and 4 are the floors used to access the car park.
•
In the event of a fire, only stairwell 4 will be used by managed isolation guests, leaving stairwells
1, 2 and 3 available for residents.
•
Lift 5 operates on a duplex system and can be locked for sole resident use on request.
•
Regular cleaning and sanitisation of shared public spaces is a standard operating procedure in
all MIFs.
•
That the above action is outlined in the Detailed Log of Requests by the Building Corporation,
which can be requested from the Body Corporate.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of our response to your
request. Information about how to contact the Ombudsman’s office is available at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone: 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
pp:
Air Commodore Darryn Webb
Head of Managed Isolation and Quarantine
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
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