16 January 2024
45 Pipitea Street, PO Box 805
Wellington 6140
Phone +64 4 495 7200
Fax +64 4 495 7222
Websi
te www.dia.govt.nz
John Luke
Via email
: [FYI request #24917 email]
Tēnā koe John
Your Official Information Act Request OIA2324-0369 about OIA staffing and statistics.
Thank you for your 28 November 2023 request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act), received by the Department of Internal Affairs (the Department), for the following
information:
1. May I kindly request org chart of your team who deal with OIA Act request.
2. How many OIA Act request you have received from 1st Jan 2023 to 28 Nov 2023.
3. Also are able to provide the status of how many requests you have delayed in reply and
4. how many you required extension of time to response.
Response to Part 1
The Department does not operate a centralised OIA servicing model. A small central team
oversees tracking, reporting, systems, and responds to OIA requests related to the
Department’s OIA system.
OIA requests related to the Department’s functions are managed by employees across the
seven branches, related to those functions. These employees who manage OIA requests also
undertake other activities as part of their substantive roles and responding to OIAs is not
their entire job. In addition, our senior leaders have regular oversight across OIAs being
completed within their functional areas and across the organisation.
To capture these employees, I have provided you with organisational charts for teams that
managed more than five OIA requests during the period from 1 January – 28 November
2023.
Please note that the organisational charts include staff who are currently employed at DIA.
Names are provided for approvers and managers.
Please refer to the separate appendix document provided with this letter, which contains
the organisational chart information you have requested.
Further information about the Department’s branches and functions are available in the
Directory of Official Informat
ion: Alphabetical list of entries | New Zealand Ministry of
Justice
Response to Parts 2 – 4
The requested information is provided in the table below. Please note the following caveats to
this data:
• ‘OIA requests received’ refers to the volume of enquiries received in the period that
were registered as a departmental OIA request, including those that were subsequently
withdrawn by the requester or transferred to another responder. This does not include
items managed as media enquiries or which received direct response by business groups
or the contact centre within the Department’s Service Delivery and Operations branch.
• We have provided the volume of media enquiries received in the period. Please be aware
that not all media enquiries are eligible requests under the Act. Media enquiries are not
currently tracked in a way that enables data to be extracted for only OIA-eligible media
enquiries.
• Data given on extensions and late responses applies only to Departmental OIA requests
received and is provided as a subset of the received volume. i.e. x requests were
received, and of these, x were extended and x were late.
Measure
1 Jan 2023 –
1 July 2023 –
30 June 2023
28 November 2023
OIA requests received
432
327
Media enquiries received
268
297
OIA deadline extended under the Act
50
35
Requests in which response was provided late
15
2
We intend to publish our response to your request on www.dia.govt.nz. This letter, with
your personal details removed, will be published in its entirety. Publishing responses
increases the availability of information to the public and is consistent with the Act’s
purpose of enabling more effective participation in the making and administration of laws
and policies and promoting the accountability of Ministers and officials.
You have the right, under section 28 of the Act, to seek an investigation and review of our
decision by the Office of the Ombudsman. The postal address of the Office of the
Ombudsman is PO Box 10152, Wellington. Alternatively, you can phone 0800 802 602 or
email [email address].
Yours sincerely
Karlene Symonds
General Manager Workplace Services
Organisational Capability and Services Branch
