22 May 2025
Bruce Van Essen
[FYI request #30911 email]
Kia ora
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-039942
Thank you for your email 7 May 2025, asking for the following information under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act):
•
What procedures are in place with ACC for a registered Occupational Therapist who is a vendor
to ACC if this vendor was to participate in a TFIA assessment for an ACC client but done on a
private basis without ACC being the referrer ?
•
Would ACC deem it a conflict of interest if a registered Occupational Therapist who has never
seen or been involved with an ACC client before was to commission a TFIA report for this ACC
client but this report is done and paid for in a private capacity between the client and the OT
without any referral or interference from ACC
Our response ACC does not hold a specific process or a procedure for the situation you have described in the first part of
your request. For this reason, we are refusing this part of your request under section 18(g) of the Act.
In the second part of your request you have asked us to give an opinion or point of view about a
hypothetical scenario. However, under the Act, an agency is only required to provide information that
is ‘held’ (official information). It is not obliged to form an opinion or provide an explanation and so
create new information to answer a request (not official information). We are therefore also refusing
this part of your request under section 18(g) of the Act as the opinion you are seeking is not held
information.
The Ombudsman’s guide for requesters ‘Making official information requests’ discusses this point
further, and is available online here:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources/making-official-information-requests-guide-requesters.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public
ACC may publish a copy of this response on ACC’s website. All requester data, including your name
and contact details, will be removed prior to release. The released response will be made available
www.acc.co.nz/resources/#/category/12. Please also view this page about making requests and our
published response
s https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/official-information-act-requests.
GOV-039942 Page 1 of 2
If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
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 a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Ngā mihi
Thomas Jackson
Manager Official Information Act Services Government Engagement
GOV-039942 Page 2 of 2
