133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
1 June 2023
Al
By email: [FYI request #22121 email]
Ref:
H2023025432
Tēnā koe Al
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to Manatū Hauora
(the Ministry of Health) on 15 May 2023 for information regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Technical
Advisory Group (CV-TAG) advice about vaccine mandates and vaccine passes. You requested:
“Can I please request emails around the specific CV-TAG advice that under 18s be
excluded from vaccination mandates including domestic vaccine passes?
It looks like they had an initial discussion and recommendation in November 2021
according to their meeting minutes, then a memo was sent reiterating that advice on the
9th of December 2021 to the Director General of Health. And they revisited the issue in
their January 2022 meeting.
In those timeframes I request any emails on the discussion of vaccine passes and
mandates to the under 18s.”
On 22 May 2023, Manatū Hauora contacted you in accordance with section 18B of the the Act
as your request requires a search through a very large volume of information. You were advised
that an initial search for information in scope of your request produced over 45,000 results. You
were advised that your request may be refused under section 18(f) of the Act as the information
requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
On the same date you replied with the following:
“To help limit the scope - the original request puts it in context of the CV-TAG advice and
how it was discussed.
Could we try the request within that scope - that means it could also include useful keywords around CV TAG in both the content or address fields - including the members of
CV-TAG and who they often sent their advisory group memos (for instance Jo Gibbs,
Astrid Koorneef, Maree Roberts, Caroline McElnay, Ashely Bloomfield).”
Manatū Hauora ran a subsequent search for emails with the additional search terms relating to
CV-TAG and for emails to/ from the officials mentioned in your request and CV-TAG members.
However, the refined search still produced thousands of results, each of which would require
individual assessment of each piece of correspondence to discern its contents. This would
place an unreasonable degree of strain on the team responsible and would interfere with the
day-to-day workings of Manatū Hauora. Therefore, your request is refused under section 18(f)
of the Act as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or
research.
You may be interested in the CV-TAG position statement regarding vaccination mandates in
those under 18 years of age which is publicly available here:
www.health.govt.nz/system/files/documents/pages/20211209_-
_cv_tag_stance_on_mandating_vaccinations_in_under_18s.pdf.
As previously advised, key documents such as briefings and aides-mémoire may hold the
information you are looking for. They will provide a comprehensive account of actions taken to
implement the domestic vaccine pass, rather than email correspondence, which is usually
administrative in nature. The Ministry remains open to responding to a manageable request in
the future.
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.
Nāku noa, nā
Jan Torres
Manager l OIA Services Government and Executive Services l Te Pou Whakatere Kāwanatanga
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