Dear Ministry of Justice,

The Ministry has published a 'BORA Vet' of the Bail (Electronic Monitoring) Amendment Bill, which can be found on its website, here:

https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Docum...

It appears that the date on which the Senior Crown Counsel signed the BORA Vet has been redacted.

The Council requests:

1) An unredacted copy of the BORA Vet;
2) An unredacted copy of the covering memo, coversheet or email providing the BORA Vet to the Attorney-General for her consideration; and
3) The date on which the Ministry provided the relevant Minister with the draft Cabinet paper for seeking Cabinet approval for introduction of the Bail (Electronic Monitoring) Amendment Bill.

Under section 16(2) of the OIA our preferences are (a) to receive a copy of the whole document (b) that the information is disclosed in a text searchable format, either Word or PDF, and (c) that it is sent to the email address from which the Ministry received this request.

If the Ministry decides that there is 'good reason' under the OIA to withhold any of the information we are requesting, then under section 19(a)(ii) of the OIA, we further request that the Ministry provide us with the grounds in support of each instance of a withholding reason cited for refusal. Guidance for agencies on how to meet their section 19(a)(ii) obligations is available from the Ombudsman at this location: https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/reso...

Yours faithfully,

New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties