10 July 2024
James Webb
[FYI request #27352 email]
Ref: PMO OIA 296-2023-24
Dear James Webb
Official Information Act request: OIA data
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request, received on 24 June 2024.
You requested:
1. “How many OIAs has your Office received since April 1, 2024? Can you please
note how many of those were transferred from other departments, agencies, or
Ministers?
2. What was the average number of days taken to respond to requests?
3. How many requests have been extended?
4. How many requests have been responded to after 20 days? Can you please note
how many of those were not extended?
5. How many requests do you have that are overdue as of the date of this request?
(i.e. have not been extended but have not been responded to in the statutory 20
days from receipt).”
For Part [1] of your request, we have a record of 102 official information requests having
been received by the Prime Minister’s office within the timeframe of your request.
We do not create and retain statistical breakdowns for the requests the Prime Minister has
received and how these are processed. To respond to the remainder of Part [1] asking how
many of these requests were transferred to the Prime Minister, and for Parts [2] to [5] asking
for various breakdowns of data for the 102 requests received, would involve the manual
checking of each request and its response.
The manual checking would need to be done by the relevant staff member in this office and,
for 102 individual requests, I believe this would require substantial collation and research.
Accordingly, I am refusing the remainder of Part [1] and Parts [2] to [5] of your request under
section 18(f) of the Act, on the basis that the information requested cannot be made available
without substantial collation or research.
In reaching this decision, I first considered the factors contained in sections 18A(1) and 18B
of the Act. I did not consider that charging you for the information, extending the time limits or
consulting with you, would allow this part of your request to be answered, given you were
wanting statistical breakdowns of all requests received.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision under
section 28(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Cameron Burrows
Chief of Staff
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