5 April 2022
Scott
[FYI request #16610 email]
Ref: OIA-2021/22-0782
Dear Scott
Official Information Act request relating to the All-of-Government COVID-19 Situation
reports
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request received on
20 December 2021. You requested:
“You seem to have changed your approach to redacting a certain part of
these documents since your 1 November response to my initial request.
For instance, comparing page 41 of your first response document (3
September report "Protests and Disinformation" section) and page 12 of your
second response (8 September report "Compliance" section) shows that the
latter is much more heavily redacted, although clearly the two cover the
same topic. This is the case for every section covering this topic in your
second response.
Are you able to please advise me why your approach has changed? If not, I
wil refer this to the Ombudsman to check if the redactions in the latter
documents are appropriate.
In the meantime, I would like to make a follow up request. I would like to
request:
Copies of all COVID-19 Across Government Situation Reports, dated since
the beginning of November.”
The timeframe for responding to your request was extended under section 15A of the Act by
40 working days due to a search through a large quantity of information being required, and
consultations to be undertaken before a decision could be made on the request. Following
this extension, I am now in a position to respond.
Before Al -of-Government COVID-19 Situation Reports can be released, the Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) undertakes consultations internal y, and externally
with a number of government agencies.
For example, in responding to your previous Official Information Act (OIA) requests for the
COVID-19 Across Government Daily Situation Reports, DPMC consulted with the Ministry of
Health, the Ministry for Business, Innovation, and Employment, the New Zealand Police, Fire
and Emergency New Zealand, the Ministry for Social Development, New Zealand Customs
Service, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the Ministry of
Transport, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Ministry for Primary Industries,
4490443
Executive Wing, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand 6011
64 4 817 9698 www.dpmc.govt.nz
Waka Kotahi, the Ministry of Education, the Department of Corrections, and Te Puni Kōkiri
before a response was provided to you.
I note there are instances in DPMC’s response to your OIA request dated 1 November 2021
(our ref: OIA-2021/22-0531) where it would appear that the approach taken is different to that
taken in our previous response to your OIA request dated 3 September 2021(our ref: OIA-
2021/22-0211). I can confirm however that DPMC was advised to redact the information
which was released as part of OIA-2021/22-0531 in OIA-2021/22-0211 following consultation
with other government agencies, as the release of the information would have prejudiced the
maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences,
and the right to a fair trial.
Please find attached a copy of the Al -of-Government COVID-19 Situation Reports from
1 November 2021 to 20 December 2021.
Some information has been withheld under the following sections of the Act:
• section 6(c), as the release 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;
• section 9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased
natural persons;
• section 9(2)(b)(i ), as the release of that information would be likely unreasonably to
prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of
the information;
• section 9(2)(ba)(i ), as the release of that information would be likely to damage the
public interest; and
• section 9(2)(c), to avoid prejudice to measures protecting the health or safety of
members of the public.
In making my decision, I have taken the public interest considerations in section 9(1) of the
Act into account.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision under
section 28(3) of the Act.
This response wil be published on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s
website during our regular publication cycle. Typically, information is released monthly, or as
otherwise determined. Your personal information including name and contact details wil be
removed for publication.
Yours sincerely
Cheryl Barnes
Deputy Chief Executive, COVID-19 Group
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