Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
DX SX10088 | Wel ington
T 04 918 8800 |
F 04 918 8820
[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
13 February 2023
Mark Williams
[FYI request #20618 email]
Our ref: OIA 99473
Tēnā koe Mark
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 19 September 2022, in which you request information relating to
unpaid fines and reparations, and Driver Licence Stop Orders (DLSOs). Specifically, you
requested:
“1. How many people currently have unpaid fines/reparations owing to the Courts and
what is the dollar value owing for each of the last five years.
2. Could you please advise how many Driver Licence Stop Orders you have issued in
each of the last five years, and how many have been lifted during this period.
3. How much have the recipients of DLSO's eventually paid, in each of the last five
years?
4. What is the Ministry's evaluation of the success [sic]
, or otherwise, of this
programme. Do the fines received from DLSO's well and truely [sic]
cover the
Ministry's own costs in administering it (eg, staffing, salaries, IT systems, etc).”
Your request has been referred to me for a response, as it falls within my responsibilities as
Group Manager, National Service Delivery, and is being managed in accordance with the
provisions of the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act).
On 14 October 2022, the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry) informed you that we had decided
to grant your request but needed more time to finalise the information for release. I apologise
for any inconvenience this delay may have caused you.
On 1 November 2022, the Ministry contacted you to clarify question 1 of your request. You
confirmed that question 1 of your request could be clarified to the following:
“the total amount of unpaid fines owing in each of the last five years for those issued a
drive licence stop order (and not each individual's dollar value)”
Please note that all data provided is drawn from an operational database that is subject to
change, as new data is continually recorded and/or recoded.
In response to question 1, please refer to Table 1 in the Appendix which provides the
outstanding balance of in force DLSOs.
In response to question 2 and 3, please refer to Table 2 and Table 3.
In response to question 4, the Ministry has not completed an evaluation of DLSOs as they
are part of a set of options available under legislation (Land Transport Act 1998) for the
collection of fines and reparation. The Ministry does not maintain a separate register of costs
relating to specific actions regarding the collection of fines. This question is therefore refused
under section 18(e) of the Act, as this information does not exist. You can find more
information about fines enforcement at: justice.govt.nz/fines/about-fines/fines-enforcement/
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. The Ombudsman may be contacted by email to
[email address] or by phone on 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Tracey Baguley
Group Manager, National Service Delivery
