Tēnā koe Prime Minister,

This email is a request for information and is to be answered as required by the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA).

This request is in two parts, Part A and Part B. Both relate to the “designated agency”, which is a public service agency (or agencies) designated by you, the Prime Minister, to meet certain requirements under the Security Information in Proceedings Act 2022 (the SIPA).

I acknowledge that the information requested in Part B of this request is more closely connected with the functions of the designated agency responsible for maintaining the special advocate panel under s 16 of the SIPA. Because the name of the designated agency is not yet publicly known, I trust that you will transfer Part B of this request to the relevant designated agency in accordance with s 14 of the OIA. This saves me from having to wait for your response in order to request the information from the designated agency directly.

Part A:

1. What is the name of the public service agency you have designated as responsible for maintaining the special advocate panel under s 16 of the SIPA?
2. What is the name of the public service agency you have designated as responsible for meeting the costs of special advocates and special advisers under ss 24 and 27 of the SIPA?

Part B:

In this request, “special advocate” means a lawyer who is a member of the special advocate panel.

1. Please provide a list of special advocates and date they were first appointed to the panel.
2. How many special adovcates currently sit on the special advocate panel?
3. How many special advocates are men?
4. How many special advocates are King’s Counsel?
5. What is the median post-qualification experience of special advocates?

Questions 2–5 may be answered implicitly through the answering of Question 1.

6. Please provide any policies, application forms (unfilled), questionnaires (unfilled), selection criteria, agreements, memoranda, details of how potential candidates for appointment are identified or discovered, or other documents used in the appointment process and administration of the special advocate panel.
7. What is (are) the current remuneration rate(s), if any, agreed between the designated agency and special advocates?
8. How many proceedings have special advocates been appointed in since the commencement of the SIPA?
9. Do special adovcates maintain a security clearance independently of their appointment to the special advocate panel (e.g. as a result of other government legal work), or is the designated agency the sponsoring/granting agency of special advocates’ security clearances?

Yours faithfully,

Henricus