Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
DX SX10088 | Wellington
T 04 918 8800 |
F 04 918 8820
[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
9 October 2023
Felix Lee
[FYI request #23865 email]
Our ref: OIA 106898
Tēnā koe Felix
Official Information Act 1982 request: Juror Counselling
Thank you for your request of 16 August 2023 to the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry), under
the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act). Specifically, you requested:
1.
For each of the past 5 years,
•
Total number of court cases in which at least one jury member was provided with
this service
•
Total number of jury members who were provided with this service
•
Total number of counselling sessions provided
•
Total cost of this service
2.
What are the qualifications needed to be a counsellor providing this service
3.
How are these counsellors selected
4.
Any guidelines for the counsellors on how to provide this service and guidelines on
what jury members can and cannot say during counselling.
On 11 September 2023, the Ministry advised that under section 15(1) of the Act, the Ministry
had decided to grant your request, but that more time was required to finalise the information
for release.
Juror counselling services are contracted to and run by EAP Services Ltd (EAP).
With regard to question 1, please note that the court cases jurors are part of are not recorded
when they use this service. This part of question 1 is therefore refused under section 18(g) of
the Act, as the information does not exist. Please find the other information for this question
in the attached appendix.
With regard to question 2, all counsellors involved in this service are required to be registered
with a New Zealand board such as the NZ Association of Counsellors (NZAC).
In order to qualify as a professional counsellor and attain membership of NZAC, counsellors
must hold either a Bachelor or Masters degree in Counselling. Counsellor education
programmes at Bachelor or Masters level are offered by a number of New Zealand tertiary
institutions. NZAC accredited tertiary counselling programmes must have demonstrated that
they meet and consistently maintain the standards for counsellor education programmes
established by the NZAC.
With regard to question 3, each counsellor candidate is interviewed for the role in accordance
with the Employee Assistance Professional Association of Australasia (EAPAA) guidelines.
The guidelines can be found at:
eapaa.com.au/site/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EAPAA-Service-Standards-for-Australia-
and-New-Zealand-2023.pdf.
With regard to question 4, counselling for jurors is confidential. The service exists to provide
support for jurors regarding whatever they are facing. If particular themes from jurors are
noticed, feedback from the counsellor is provided to their leads, who can feed this information
back to the organisation.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at: justice.govt.nz/about/official-information-act-requests/oia-responses/.
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 phoning
0800 802 602 or by emailing [email address].
Thank you for writing.
Nāku noa, nā
Steve Sim
Acting Deputy Secretary, Corporate and Digital Services
Appendix
Juror EAP data for 2019-2023 Calendar years
Year Juror count
Session count
Total cost
2019
37
67
$8,877.50
2020
32
53
$ 7,022.50
2021
44
84
$ 11,130.00
2022
46
113
$ 15,820.00
2023
126
253
$ 36,685.00
Total
285
570
$ 79,535.00
Notes
The costs provided are GST-exclusive.
The 2023 information is current as of 30 September 2023.
Session costs vary depending on the year of the session. In 2019-2021, it was $132.50 per
session, 2022 was $140 per session, and 2023 is $145 per session.
