Border Executive Board
The Customhouse
1 Hinemoa Street
Harbour Quays, Wellington 6011
Email: [email address], Website: www.customs.govt.nz
Date: 20 September 2022
Craig BISHOP
[FYI request #20278 email]
Dear Craig Bishop
Request for information under the Official Information Act
Thank you for your request dated 18 August 2022 to the Ministry of Health in which you
request the following information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
all Border Committee Minutes from the beginning of the Covid-19 response to the
present day. For example early January 2020 - August 2022.
On 24 August 2022, your request was transferred to the Border Executive Board.
Decisions regarding the inclusion of border and health workers in the scope of the COVID-19
Public Health Response (Required Testing) Order 2020, the COVID-19 Public Health
Response (Vaccination) Order 2020 and the associated amendments were made by the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Ministry of Health. The border agencies
were consulted during the drafting of these pieces of legislation.
The Border Executive Board (Board) started on 11 January 2021. The Board did not make
individual decisions regarding the application of these Orders; these decisions were individual
employment decisions made by border agencies. Applications to be exempt from these Orders
were made to the Director-General of Health. The Board undertook a co-ordination and
assurance role regarding implementation and compliance with the requirements stemming
from the COVID-19 Public Health Orders for border workers only.
Please find attached Border Executive Board minutes from 13 January 2021 to 22 September
2021; it was common for discussions regarding the implementation and compliance with the
Vaccination and Testing orders to take place at Board meetings and a record of these
discussions can be found within the minutes of Board meetings.
Board updates to the Minister for the COVID-19 Response Weekly reports from 1 July 2021
have been pro-actively released on the
Unite Against COVID-19 webpage. These updates
included information about the discussions at Board meetings as well as updates from other
border agencies regarding the COVID-19 response. These updates may provide more of the
information that you are looking for. The weekly updates to the COVID-19 Response Minister
will continue to be proactively released.
The Board scaled down it’s assurance role following the deadline for border workers to have
received a second vaccination dose on 4 November 2021. From 12 November 2021, reporting
on vaccination rates and compliance was provided by the Ministry of Health Border Workforce
Register dashboard. The Board does not hold this information.
With the Reconnecting New Zealanders to the World steps to re-opening coming into force in
February 2022, the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Required Testing) order was revoked
on 30 June 2022.
The Unite Against COVID-19 webpage also contai
ns documents relating to border decisions
including the Health decisions, domestic and international travel restrictions and the
Reconnecting New Zealanders programme.
The reviews of COVID-19 Border Measures in Maritime and Aviation, the review of Border
Worker Testing and Vaccination in Maritime and Aviation and the rapid review of Border
Worker Testing in MIQ have been
proactively released on the Border Executive Board
webpage.
If you are not satisfied with my response, you have the right, by way of complaint to the Office
of the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act, to seek an investigation and review of this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available online at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or alternatively the Office of the Ombudsman can be
contacted on 0800 802 602.
I also wish to advise that the Border Executive Board Secretariat may proactively release
responses to Official Information Act requests on the Board Executive Board page hosted on
the Customs’ website. As such, this response, without your name and contact details, may be
published on the website after it has been sent to you.
If you have any queries about this response, please contact the Border Executive Board
Secretariat at
[email address].
Yours sincerely
Christine Stevenson
Chair of the Border Executive Board
Encl: Border Executive Board minutes
