12 October 2023
AS Van Wey
[FYI request #24183 email]
Kia ora Amy
Decision on your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-027852
Thank you for your request of 19 September 2023, asking for the below information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Dear Accident Compensation Corporation,
Section 64 of the Act requires ACC to provide notices of decisions. In ACC v Hawea [2004] NZAR 673,
the court held that "[18] To make a decision is to make up one's mind, to make a judgment, to come
to a conclusion or resolution."
I request copies of all ACC notifications to claimants, which should include, but is not limited to:
(1) Acknowledgment of a claim;
(2) First notice of time extension (s 56-57);
(3) Request for consent for further time extension, (s 56-57);
(4) Steps of the investigation of a claim (s 62, 64, rights 5 & 6);
(5) Request for specific information consistent with IPP 3, which includes who wil have access to the
claimants' information, how it wil be used, etc.;
(6) Closure of claim files and details how the information wil be held and who wil have access after
closure of the claim (s 62, 64, rights 5 & 6);
(7) Deemed cover decision (s 58);
(8) Continued investigation of claims and the steps taken to date (s 62, 64, rights 5 & 6);
(9) Claims being on hold, and investigations and or assessment of the claims are not progressing,
and the reason for the discontinuation of investigation or assessment (for instance during litigation,
a review or appeal);
(10) ACC is seeking external clinical advice (ECA), the reasons for seeking ECA, the choice of external
clinical advisors, the specific information ACC intends to disclose for the ECA, and request for
consent to disclose the specified information;
(11) ACC is intending to disclosing personal information to a third party (e.g., external counsel,
FairWay, courts, doctors, etc.), the specific information ACC intends to disclose, the reason for the
disclosure, and the request for the claimants consent;
(12) ACC has obtained personal information about them , which details the information ACC
obtained and from whom;
(13) ACC had obtained an external clinical assessor report with details the next steps (such as
requests for correction under IPP 7) prior to decisions being made about cover;
(14) ACC believes they have completed their investigation, which specifies the details of the
information ACC has obtained, and that ACC requests a conversation with the claimant to ensure
ACC has obtained all relevant information and requests if the claimant requests any correction (IPP
7) prior to making a decision on the claim (pursuant to IPP 8) .
(15) ACC is investigating a claimant by ACC internal security advisors and the reason for it (e.g.,
suspected fraud or other dishonesty).
(16) A claimants claims has been transferred to a new assessor, new claims manager, new team, or
someone other than the person who had been managing their claim.
(17) Entitlements and rehabilitation (ss 67-91 of the Act);
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(18) Treatment (ss 73-74 of the Act);
(19) Weekly compensation (ss 100-101 of the Act) and the procedures for determining incapacity (s
101);
(20) Incapacity for employment (ss 102-106) of the Act);
(21) Vocation independence (ss 107- 113 of the Act);
(22) Interest on late payments (s 114 of the Act);
(23) Indexation of weekly compensation and related amounts or other entitlements (ss 115-116 of
the Act);
(24) Powers of the corporation (s 117 of the Act);
(25) Review decision and the effect of the decision (ss 145-147 of he Act);
(26) ACCs obligation to provide entitlements where subsequent injury occurs (s 295) and ACCs
obligations under section 296 of the Act;
(27) ACC has commenced an investigation of a complaint and provides a summary of the complaint,
as ACC understands it, requests the complainant to provide clarifications prior to commencing an
investigation, includes the includes the steps ACC wil take or has taken, and the expected
timeframes;
(28) ACC is providing an update on an investigation to a complaint, which includes the includes the
steps ACC wil take or has taken, and the expected timeframes; and
(29) ACC believes they have completed their investigation of the complaint, provides a summary of
the complaint and information obtained to date, and requests clarification and correction of any
disputable facts from the complainant (IPP 7) before issuing a final decision on a complaint (IPP 8);
and
(30) ACCs final decision regarding a complaint.
Pursuant to section 16 of the OIA, I request that the documents I've requested be made readily
available through the ACC website in a manner which is readily accessible (such as an Policy &
Process webpage, or Documents webpage).
I ask that the cover letter response be made available through FYI.org.nz, as wel as the links to the
documents I've specifically requested. In so doing, ACC wil reduced the number of repeat requests
for the same information. For instance, I noticed that ACC responded to three people with many of
the same documents, within 2 days of each other. This redundancy (and waste of tax payers money)
would not occur if ACC made all its policies, processes, guidelines, templates and other documents
readily available though the ACC website (in the spirit of transparency) rather than restricting
access to ACC employees. Just a practical solution to ponder.
Our decision to charge
We have decided to grant your request in part. However, given the amount of resource required to provide
the information, our decision is subject to a charge for making the information available. We estimate the
maximum charge will be $380. For details of how this charge has been calculated, please refer to the
Estimate of Costs in the appendix. Please note that this has been calculated as a contribution to the overal
costs, rather than for full-cost recovery. If the time taken is less than we estimate, the costs wil be reduced
accordingly, and refunded if required.
Before we proceed with this response, please confirm agreement to the charge. Once agreement is
received, we wil provide instructions on how to pay the full amount. You wil need to pay a 50% deposit,
equating to $190, prior to ACC beginning work, with the balance to be paid on release of the information.
The decision to apply a charge for this request is consistent with:
• Section 15 of the Act
• ACC’s OIA Policy
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• Ombudsman Charging Guidance
: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources/charging-guide-
charging-official-information-under-oia-and-lgoima
• The Ministry of Justice Charging Guidelines
: www.justice.govt.nz/about/official-information-act-
requests/directory-of-official-information/charging-guidelines-for-oia-requests/.
If you are not happy with this decision
You can contact the Ombudsman vi
a [email address] or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Information about how to make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Ngā mihi
Sara Freitag
Acting Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement
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Estimate of costs
Locations searched
• Te Pātaka, Process Master, internal
customer SharePoint groups
Search terms used
• Every notification (letter type) to a
claimant used by ACC.
Date range
No date range: Al current notification letters
to clients.
Estimated no. of documents at issue/to be
• 250+ (letters vary depending on the
searched through
situation).
Chargeable activities required
•
Search and retrieval
•
Collation •
Research (reading and reviewing to
identify the information)
• Editing (excising or redacting information
to be withheld)
• Scanning / copying
•
Reasonably required peer review to
ensure that these tasks have been carried
our correctly and that no notification
letters have been missed.
Estimated minutes per document to complete • 3 minutes (conservative time estimate)
chargeable activities
Estimated total time to complete chargeable • 6-8 hours
activities
Estimated no. of pages to be photocopied
• N/A
Quantity
Price
Totals
Labour
6 hours (lower estimate) $38/half hour, with $[6 - 1 x $76] = $380
the first hour free
Photocopying (if
N/A
applicable) Other (specify)
$
$
Discount applied due
to public interest /
hardship (if
applicable)
Total cost $380
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