22 July 2024
Anon
[FYI request #26953 email] Kia ora Anon
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-032589
Thank you for your request of 23 May 2024, asking for information under the Official Information Act 1982
(the Act):
1.
Request 1: Please provide the internal rules, policies, guidelines, or other documents which include
ACC's definition of mediation, conciliation, or facilitation. My preference would be for ACC to add
those definitions to ACC's ADR web-page, with a link to the document; however, if ACC is unwilling,
then please provide them through FYI.org.nz.
2.
Request 2: Please provide copies of agreement contracts provided to claimants prior to engaging in
mediation, conciliation, or facilitation.
3.
Request 3. Please provide a list of ACC contracted mediators, facilitators, and conciliators that
Claimant's may contact directly to start the ADR process.
4.
Request 4. Please provide copies of the contracts with ACC contracted mediators, conciliators, and
facilitators.
5.
Request 5. Are there restrictions to who may provide mediation, conciliation, or facilitation? For
instance, must the mediator, conciliator or facilitator be contracted to ACC? If so, please provide the
internal rules, policies, processes, guidelines, or other documents, which detail the restrictions on
who may provide ADR for claimants.
6.
Request 6. Are there any restrictions as to how a Claimant may start the ADR process (mediation,
conciliation, or facilitation), and obtain information from the mediator, conciliator, or facilitator
about the process, which ACC describes as "Step 1" of the ADR process?
7.
Request 7. If there are restrictions as to how a Claimant starts the ADR process (mediation,
conciliation, or facilitation), please provide policies, rules, processes, guidelines and other
documents about how and when a Claimant may start step 1 of the ADR process, to have a
discussion with the mediator, conciliator, or facilitator, who is (a) contracted to ACC, and (b) not
contracted with ACC.
8.
Request 8: If Claimant's who have a dispute with ACC are not permitted to start the ADR process by
contacting the mediator, conciliator or facilitator directly - as indicated in Step 1 of the ADR process
- then please provide the steps ACC employees must take after receiving a request from a Claimant
for mediation, conciliation, or facilitation. This would include all rules, guidelines, processes and
policies, which must be consistent with the Code (taking into consideration the Claimant's views,
treating them fairly, and with respect, rights 1-2), for the access to ADR.
9.
Request 9: Please provide the internal rules, policies, processes, guidelines and other documents,
pertaining to the definition of "party" or "parties", and who Claimant's should expect to be present
during Steps 2 and 3 of ADR.
10.
Request 10: If a Claimant seeks ADR, who should the claimant expect to be present as the
representative of ACC in mediation, conciliation or facilitation? Would this be the decision maker
that made the decision that is in dispute, or some other person who was unrelated to the decision
making, such as a resolution specialist, or someone who is not a party in the matter, such as
external legal counsel?
GOV-032589 Page 1 of 3
Our response
I refer to ACC’s letter to you dated 2 July 2024 asking for your full name, confirmation of your identity and
the reasons for your request. To date, we have not received a response to our letter.
You had declined to provide the further information ACC requested because you did not consider ACC was
entitled to ask for it. Since 5 July you have still not provided the information sought.
For the reasons set out below, ACC is declining your request:
• ACC has recently received a large number of apparently closely related official information requests
that also appear to be made by or on behalf of the same person. At least 20 requests were made
from your account on FYI.org.nz to ACC in a short timeframe (between May and July 2024). Many
of these were about the same topics. Other requests written in the same way, about the same
topics as your requests, and sent around the same time, have been made from other anonymous
FYI accounts. In total, there were at least 40 requests made to ACC in a short timeframe.
• These information requests require considerable expense and effort for ACC to respond to. ACC
estimates that it is currently allocating more than the equivalent of one full time employee to
respond to each of these requests separately, despite the fact that they seem closely related. It
would likely require even more expense and effort to produce all of the information sought in each
of these requests.
• This request seems to be one of these 40 related requests. Because you have not provided ACC
with information asked for to confirm whether your request is one of many related requests, ACC
has decided that your request is probably one of these many related requests.
• The way that you, or people acting for you, appear to have asked for a wide range of information in
many separate requests rather than include all questions in one request, interferes with ACC’s
ability to determine whether and how it might be able to apply various provisions of the Official
information Act to deal with your requests. Those provisions relate to whether the requests taken
as a whole require substantial collation or research so as to:
o allow ACC to decline some or all of the requests under s18(f) of the Act;
o consider combining your request with any other requests made by you under s18A(2) of
the Act;
o fully to consider fixing a charge for providing the documents concerned under s15 and
s18A(1) of the Act.
• Because your request appears to be part of a wider course of conduct making numerous official
information requests in a way that prevents ACC from applying the parts of the Official Information
Act that protect agencies from being put to unreasonable effort and expense in responding to
official information requests, ACC considers that your request is frivolous or vexatious in terms of
s18(h) of the Act.
• Your entire request is therefore refused.
ACC sought the same information from each of the requestors in as many of the related requests as it has
been able to identify and has not received information from any of them to allow it to work out how to
consider and respond to the requests in the way required by the Act.
If ACC is wrong and your request is not one among many related requests then please let me know
urgently, or if you prefer, take the issue to the Ombudsman
via [email address] or by
GOV-032589 Page 2 of 3
phoning 0800 802 602. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Ngā mihi
Christopher Johnston
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement
GOV-032589 Page 3 of 3
