IN-CONFIDENCE

31 October 2023

Adam Ward
[FYI request #24321 email]

Tēnā koe Adam Ward
On  3 October 2023,  you emailed the Ministry of Social Development (the
Ministry) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982  (the Act), the
following information:
•
Please can you provide counts of the number of people on the State
Housing Register by Statistical Area 2 (using 2023 boundaries) for the
Quarter ending March 2023.
I appreciate that in order to protect the privacy of individuals all counts
will be random rounded and all counts between 1 and 6 inclusive will
be suppressed.
Please include 2023 SA2 codes in the output
The Ministry regularly publishes information about Emergency Housing and the
Public Housing Register. This information is available on our website at the
following
link:
www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-
resources/statistics/housing/monthly-housing-reporting.html.
In our monthly reporting, we classify people into regions for Public Housing
based on the address of the main applicant at the date of the published report.
It does not necessarily indicate where the applicants have requested to live.
We report based on the Ministry’s regions, as explained here:
www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-
resources/corporate/annual-report/2018-2019/overview/our-locations.html.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) also publishes data
concerning  the  Public  Housing  Register,  broken  down  by Territorial Local
Authority  (TLA), which is available here: www.hud.govt.nz/stats-and-
insights/the-government-housing-dashboard/housing-register/#tabset.
We do not report on this data, at levels below TLA or Ministry regions. To do
so would require substantial manual collation work by Ministry staff, to bring
together accurate datasets at levels below TLA.

IN-CONFIDENCE

I am therefore refusing your request under section 18(f) of the Act, on the
basis that substantial manual collation and research would be required to
answer your request. The greater public interest is in the effective and efficient
administration of the public service.
I have considered whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your
request given extra time, or the ability to charge for the information requested.
I  have  concluded  that,  in  either  case,  the  Ministry’s  ability  to  undertake  its
work would still be prejudiced.
The principles and purposes of the Official Information Act 1982 under which
you made your request are:
•  to create greater openness and transparency about the plans, work and
activities of the Government,
•  to  increase  the  ability  of  the  public  to  participate  in  the  making  and
administration of our laws and policies and
•  to lead to greater accountability in the conduct of public affairs.
This Ministry fully supports those principles and purposes. that would identify
you as the person who requested the information.
If you wish  to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email].
If  you  are  not  satisfied  with  this  response,  you  have  the  right  to  seek  an
investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make
a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui

Sarah Quigan
Manager
Official Information
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