11 June 2024
I Brown
IR-01-24-16123
[FYI request #26734 email]
Dear Mr/Ms Brown
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act (1982) request of 11 May 2024 in which you
requested information about costs orders and litigation claim payments made by Police
over the past ten years. You specifically requested:
1. The number of costs orders (however described) in the Police records, made by
any court or tribunal against the New Zealand Police, however categorised by the
Police, summarised nationally and also broken down by Police administrative
region. Please ensure that the information is presented with the reason for each
cost order as recorded by the Police department's own records. In other words, I
want to know how many awards of costs, in any court or tribunal, were made
against the Police, both nationally and by region, how much each one was, and
the reason the Police have recorded for the payment being ordered. If the costs
awards were made to another government department please advise which
department the payment relates to. In relation to payments to non-governmental
legal persons, I do not need to know who the payments were made to, but I do
want to know whether the payment was made to a corporate entity or a private
individual or group of individuals. Please ensure that the court or tribunal making
the order is identified in relation to each payment.
2. The number of payments made to other parties as a result of litigation, again
summarised national y and broken down by region, as well as a description of the
type of litigation the payment arose from, and whether the payment was made to
a corporate entity or an individual person or group of persons
In response to the first part of your request, Police does not have any centralised
recording of cost orders made by courts. As such, this part of your request is refused
pursuant to section 18(f) of the OIA, as the information requested cannot be made
available without substantial collation or research.
In response to part two of your request, Police Legal Services are the budget holder for
litigation claims made against Police. The number of claims per year in which
compensation was paid to complainants, is recorded at a national level, by Police Legal
Services and specified in the below table.
Table 1: Number of claims per year in which compensation was paid to
complainants
Financial Year
No of claims
2012/13
11
2013/14
18
2014/15
17
2015/16
19
2016/17
15
2017/18
11
2019/20
16
2020/21
21
2021/22
13
2022/23
10
However, the records are not broken down by region, nor are the subject of individual
claims against Police recorded by category. The majority of litigation claims against
Police are made by individuals, but Police does not record whether the claimant was an
individual or a corporate entity. Therefore, this part of your request is refused pursuant
section 18(f) of the OIA, as the information requested cannot be made available without
substantial collation or research.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision if you are not satisfied
with the way that I have responded to your request.
Yours sincerely
Ian Bradshaw
Practice Manager - Legal Admin
New Zealand Police
