18 July 2024
Anon
[FYI request #27010 email]
Kia ora
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-033174
Thank you for your email of 19 June 2024, asking for the fol owing information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
[…] So again, please provide me with a copy of ACC's decision letter regarding seeking external
clinical assessment (sections 62 of the Act), which must be in writing (section 64 of the Act; rights 1,
2, 5, 6, 7 of the Code; and rules 3, 5, 10 and 11 of the HIPC).
I request 3 examples of such letters, issued by the Specialist Cover Assessors, for the past 10 years.
Please ensure that the claimant's personal identifiers are redacted.
If your response is that ACC has no such letters on file, then I request the following.
For each year from 1999 to present (20 years), the
(a) number of claims where a claimant's medical information was been disclosed to an external
clinical advisers under section 62 of the Act - a requisite for all treatment injury claims according to
ACC's internal processes; and
(b) number of claims where the claimant was notified by letter of ACC's decision to seek external
clinical advice under section 62 of the Act, prior to disclosing the claimants information; and
(c) number of claims where the claimant was notified by email (instead of a letter) of ACC's decision
to seek external clinical advice under section 62 of the Act, prior to disclosing the claimants
information; and
(d) number of claims where the claimant was notified by phone (and not provided any written
notice) of ACC's decision to seek external clinical advice under section 62 of the Act, prior to
disclosing the claimants information; and
(e) number of claims where the claimant where the claimant never received any notice of ACC's
decision to seek external clinical advice under section 62 of the Act, prior to disclosing the claimants
information.
To avoid any doubt, part (e) is not zero.
For each of the past 20 years, I request 3 copies of each letter by mail and letter by email, notifying
the claimant of ACC's decision to seek external clinical advice under section 62 of the Act, which
includes ACC's obligatory information under the HIPC. Please redact the claimants' personal
identifiers (name, email, address, and claim number) to ensure their privacy is protected.
For each of the years, I request a copy of the script ACC employees were supposed to follow when
notifying claimants of ACC's decision to seek external clinical advice under section 62 of the Act,
which includes ACC's obligatory information under the HIPC.
Our response
I refer to ACC’s letter to you dated 4 July 2024 asking for your ful name, confirmation of your identity and
the reasons for your request. To date, we have not received a response to our letter.
GOV-033174 Page 1 of 3
Today is the last of the 20 working days in which ACC may respond to your official information request. For
the reasons set out below, ACC is declining your request.
ACC’s reasons now to decline your request are that:
• ACC has recently received a large number of 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 ful time employee to
respond to each of these requests separately, despite the fact that they seem closely related. It
would likely require further effort to produce al 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 request. 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 ful y 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.
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 in the way set out at the end of this message.
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 that information from any of them.
If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
GOV-033174 Page 2 of 3
You can email me a
t [email address]. If you are not happy with this response, you can also
contact the Ombudsman via
[email address] or by 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-033174 Page 3 of 3
Document Outline
