Kia ora,

 

Thank you for your Official Information Act (the Act) request. This is
an automatic reply to let you know we received it.

 

Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Ministry is experiencing
significantly higher volumes of queries and requests for information. We
will endeavour to acknowledge your request as soon as possible. Further
information about COVID-19 can be found on our
website: [1]https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise...

 

Please be advised that due dates for requests received from 29 November
2021 onwards take into account the following periods:

 

Christmas (25 December 2021)

Summer Holidays (25 December to 15 January)

New Year's Day (1 January 2022)

Day after News Year's Day (2 January 2022)

 

If you'd like to calculate the due date for your request, you can use the
Ombudsman's online calculator here: [2]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/

If you have any questions while we're processing your request, please let
us know via [3][email address]

 

Ngā mihi  

OIA Services Team  

   

[4]Ministry of Health information releases  

[5]Unite against COVID-19 

 

 

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References

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1. https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/dise...
2. http://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&a...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...
5. https://covid19.govt.nz/

Kia ora Robin, 
Thank you for your email. 
The Ministry understands this is an identical request that was responded
to yesterday, 2 December 2021 (H202112131 refers). We have re-attached the
response for your convenience. Please note, if you continue to make
repeated requests for the same information your requests may be refused
under section 18(h) of the Act, as the request may be considered frivolous
or vexatious. 
Ngā mihi, 
OIA Services 

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From: Robin Benson <[FYI request #17810 email]>
Sent: Thursday, 2 December 2021 15:43
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Official Information request - Communications between the
Director-General of Health and MCNZ concerning Covid19
 
Dear Ministry of Health,

This is an official request for information pursuant to the Official
Information Act 1982 ("Act").

Please provide all communications between the Director-General of Health
and Medical Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021
concerning information or matters relating to COVID-19.

I confirm that I meet the requirements of the Act in making this request.

Should you require evidence concerning my meeting requirements pursuant to
section 12 of the Act please respond without delay outlining:

(a) what evidence you require and an email address to which such
information can be sent, and

(b) the genuine and reasonable grounds for requiring such evidence.

Yours faithfully,

Robin Benson

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This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
[FYI request #17810 email]

Is [Ministry of Health request email] the wrong address for Official Information requests
to Ministry of Health? If so, please contact us using this form:
[1]https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
[2]https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...

If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.

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This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared
by the Ministry of Health's Content and Virus Filtering Gateway

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References

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1. https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...
2. https://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&...

Tēnā koe Robin, 
Thank you for your email. 
To clarify, all communications/correspondence identified within scope of
your refined request was released to you in our response to your request
sent yesterday. 
The Ministry has nothing further to add to your request. As previously
advised, under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the
Ombudsman to review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman
may be contacted by email at: [email address] or by calling
0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi, 
OIA Services 

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From: Robin Benson <[FOI #17810 email]>
Sent: Friday, 3 December 2021 12:40
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: Re: Official Information request - Communications between the
Director-General of Health and MCNZ concerning Covid19
 
Dear OIA Requests,

Thank you for the response.

No, this is not an identical request, nor is it vexatious. The scope
previously suggest by the Ministry of Health transpired to be
prohibitively restrictive in that it was limited to "formal
communications" which was a couple of A4 pages of generic documents.

This request is still significantly more confined than the original
previous request but more in line with the broad basis of it.

Happy to clarify further if this is unclear.

Yours sincerely,

Robin Benson

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Tēnā koe Robin

 

Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act) to the Ministry of Health (the Ministry) on 3 December 2021 for
information relating to COVID-19. Please find a response to each part of
your request below. You stated:

 

ALL COMMUNICATIONS between the Director-General of Health and Medical
Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021 concerning
information or matters relating to COVID-19."

 

Please either:

 1. Confirm that the results from the two requests above are identical, in
which case "Director-General of Health" should be amended to include
"and Ministry of Health" to widen the scope, and confirm this
amendment, OR

 

On 23 September 2021, the Ministry advised you in accordance with section
18B of the Act, including communications from the wider Ministry would
require a search through a substantial amount of information to respond to
your request and may be refused under section 18(f) of the Act. As such,
the Ministry has not undertaken a search for any and all communication the
Ministry and the Medical Council in the time requested.

 

2. Provide the information requested according to the CURRENT request
above.

 

Please note the following:

 

At 11:18 on 24 September 2021 the Ministry suggested the wording “Formal
correspondence between the Director-General of Health and Medical Council
of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021 concerning
information or matters relating to COVID-19.” as a manageable scope for
your request.

 

At 11:32 on 24 September 2021 you responded, suggesting the wording
“Correspondence between the Minister of Health and Director-General of
Health, and the Medical Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1
September 2021 concerning information or matters relating to COVID-19.”
The Ministry responded to this by way of providing you with a response on
2 December 2021 under reference H202112131.

 

Additionally, this request overlaps with earlier requests made to the
Ministry for the same information. This includes a response under
H202112131. Sending repeated requests for the same information could
result in similar requests being refused under section 18(h) of the Act,
as frivolous or vexatious. 

  

Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to
review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be
contacted by email at: [1][email address] or by calling 0800
802 602.

 

Nāku noa, nā

 

OIA Services

Government Services

Office of the Director-General

Ministry of Health

E: [2][email address]

 

 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]

Thank you for your Official Information Act request. This is
an automatic reply to let you know we received it.

In accordance with the Act, we'll let you know our decision within no more
than 20 working days. If you'd like to calculate the timeframe, you can
use the Ombudsman's online calculator
here: [1]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/

Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic response, the Ministry is experiencing
significantly higher volumes of queries and requests for information. This
means we may take some time in responding to your request. The Ministry
regularly updates information about the COVID-19 situation and publishes
OIA responses considered to be of public interest:
[2]https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...

Please also refer to the Unite Against Covid-19 website for copies of
papers, minutes, and key advice for the decisions the Government has made
relating to COVID-19.

Sometimes we may need to clarify aspects of a request. You can expect to
hear from us soon if that is the case here.

Ngā mihi,

 

OIA Services

Government Services

Office of the Director-General

Ministry of Health

E: [3][email address]

 

 

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References

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1. http://scanmail.trustwave.com/?c=15517&a...
2. https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...
3. mailto:[email address]

Tçnâ koe Robin

Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act) to the Ministry of Health (the Ministry) on 3 December 2021 for
information relating to COVID-19. Please find a response to each part of
your request below. You stated:

               “ALL COMMUNICATIONS between the Director-General of Health
and Medical  Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021
concerning  information or matters relating to COVID-19."
               Please either:
               1. Confirm that the results from the two requests above are
identical, in which case "Director-General of Health" should be amended to
include "and Ministry of Health" to widen the scope, and confirm this
               amendment, OR”

On 23 September 2021, the Ministry advised you in accordance with section
18B of the Act, including communications from the wider Ministry
would require a search through a substantial amount of information to
respond to your request and may be refused under section 18(f) of the Act.
As such, the Ministry has not undertaken a search for any and all
communication the Ministry and the Medical Council in the time requested.

               “2. Provide the information requested according to the
CURRENT request above.”

Please note the following:

At 11:18 on 24 September 2021 the Ministry suggested the wording “Formal
correspondence between the Director-General of Health and Medical Council
of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021 concerning
information or matters relating to COVID-19.” as a manageable scope for
your request.

At 11:32 on 24 September 2021 you responded, suggesting the wording
“Correspondence between the Minister of Health and Director-General of
Health, and the Medical Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1
September 2021 concerning information or matters relating to COVID-19.”
The Ministry responded to this by way of providing you with a response on
2 December 2021 under reference H202112131.

Additionally, this request overlaps with earlier requests made to the
Ministry for the same information. This includes a response under
H202112131. Sending repeated requests for the same information could
result in similar requests being refused under section 18(h) of the Act,
as frivolous or vexatious. 

Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman
to review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be
contacted by email at: [1][email address] or by calling
0800 802 602.

 Nâku noa, nâ

OIA Services

Government Services

Office of the Director-General

Ministry of Health

E: [2][email address]

 

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References

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1. mailto:[email address]
2. mailto:[email address]

Kia ora Robin,

 

I’ve attached our previous response to you for your reference. You will
see that the information provided to you was for “Correspondence between
the Minister of Health and Director-General of Health, and the Medical
Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021 concerning
information or matters relating to COVID-19.” The information in scope of
this is the same as if you include the word “All”.

 

As mentioned in our below email, we have not provided you with “formal
correspondence”. Formal correspondence would exclude emails, which you can
see in appendix 1, the Ministry has provided to you.

 

Ngā mihi,

 

OIA Services

Government Services

Office of the Director-General

Ministry of Health

E: [1][email address]

 

 

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From: Robin Benson <[2][FOI #17810 email]>
Sent: Friday, 21 January 2022 10:50
To: OIA Requests <[3][email address]>
Subject: Re: Your request for information, ref: H202117893

 

Dear OIA Requests,

Information provided previously was very limited, despite you previously
indicating the scope was too wide, to "formal" communication.

If you check my responses, you will find that I have requested all
communication for this period.

Are you saying that "formal" communication is identical to "communication"
i.e. there is no difference in this case?

Yours sincerely,

Robin Benson

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Kia ora Robin,
Thank you for your email. The Ministry can confirm this is correct.

Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to
review any decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be
contacted by email at: [1][email address] or by calling 0800
802 602. 

 

Ngā mihi 

OIA Services Team 

  

[2]Ministry of Health information releases 

[3]Unite against COVID-19 

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From: Robin Benson <[FYI request #17810 email]>
Sent: Friday, 21 January 2022 11:34
To: OIA Requests <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Your request for information, ref: H202117893
 
Dear OIA Requests,

I do appreciate your persistence with this request.

For the sanity of all concerned maybe we should return to the original
request?

Please confirm you have provided the following. This would include
messaging, email, letters, telephone and in-person conversations whether
remote or not, etc.

"Please provide all communications between the Director-General of Health
and Medical Council of New Zealand from 1 August 2020 to 1 September 2021
concerning information or matters relating to COVID-19."

If this is in the affirmative then I will close this request. If in the
negative please provide the requested information.

Yours sincerely,

Robin Benson

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