7 October 2024
M Bell
[FYI request #28346 email]
Tēnā koe
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00064629
Thank you for your email on 10 September 2024, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for
the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Please provide any and all external consultant reports prepared as a result or response to
the whistleblower release of the covid vaccine data from last year.
One of these documents known to exist is the report of an IT Audit and is titled “Potential
Data Theft”. Please supply the reports with the least amount of redaction as possible, am
am not requesting a summary of the reports, I am requesting the reports in full.
Please also provide an itemization of the costs incurred to produce these reports.
Response
Health New Zealand holds reports from external consultants that fall within the scope of your
request and it is refusing your request for those reports on the following grounds:
1. Section 6(c) of the Act – the making available of the reports would prejudice the
maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences,
and the right to a fair trial. One aspect of this withholding ground relates to the fact that the
individual involved in the unauthorised release of Covid vaccine data has been criminally
charged and is scheduled to have a trial by jury in April 2025.
2. Section 9(2)(a) of the Act – withholding of information in the reports is necessary to protect
the privacy of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons;
3. Section 9(2)(e) of the Act – withholding of information in the reports is necessary to avoid
prejudice to measures that prevent or mitigate material loss to members of the public;
4. Section 9(2)(h) – withholding of one of the reports is necessary to maintain legal
professional privilege;
5. Section 9(2)(k) – withholding of the reports is necessary to prevent the disclosure or use of
official information for improper gain or improper advantage.
In relation to the withholding grounds numbered 2 to 5 above, Health New Zealand has carefully
considered the public interest in disclosing the information within the scope of the request against
the need to withhold it. We do not consider that the public interest in disclosure of the reports
outweighs the need to withhold them on the grounds numbered 2 to 5 set out above.
As to the second part of your request, the total costs charged by the external consultants (and paid
by Health New Zealand) for their work arising out of the unauthorised release of Covid vaccine
data – which resulted in the reports – was $554,304.60 including GST. This includes the costs of
writing the reports.
Health New Zealand refuses to provide any breakdown of the work carried out by the external
consultants on the withholding grounds referred to in paragraph 1, 3, 4, and 5 above.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. Al requester data, including your name and
contact details, wil be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sonny Taite
Ngāi Te Rangi
National Chief Information Security Officer
Data and Digital
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand
