4 July 2025
Jennifer Jiayi
Via email:
fyirequest31219[email address]
Tēnā koe Jennifer
Request for information: Pharmac Budget 2025 bids
Thank you for your request dated 5 June 2025 under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act) for information relating to Pharmac’s Budget 2025 bids. You requested:
* Any copies of final or draft documentation (digital or physical forms) on Pharmac
budget bids relating to the Combined Pharmaceutical Budget (CPB) and budget
funding signals, and the National Pharmaceuticals Purchasing appropriation for the
BUDGET 2025 (2025/26 financial year) and outyears.
For clarity, please include the fol owing items such as: reports, letters, emails,
minutes, recommendations, spreadsheets, analyses, templates, notes, comments
and commentary and any other documentation types produced on the topic.
On 17 June 2025, you were asked to refine your request because, as it was worded, was for
a very large volume of information. We asked that you refine your request to final versions of
final documents relating to the specified topic.
On 18 June, you replied with the fol owing:
I can refine my request to exclude any emails. However I would stil request any final
and draft documents, e.g. PDF, Spreadsheets, word documents, etc. that are
attached to the emails would stil be in scope of this revised request and must be
included in the response from Pharmac.
You wil find the information requested attached as Appendix 1. Some information has been
withheld under the fol owing sections of the Act:
section 9(2)(g)(i) of the Act, to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through
the free and frank expression of opinion; and
section 9(2)(f)(iv) to maintain the constitutional conventions that protect the
confidentiality of advice tendered by Ministers and officials.
Further documentation relating to the Budget 2025 process has been refused under section
18(d) of the Act, as the information wil soon be made publicly available. This includes a
briefing to the Associate Minister of Health, Hon David Seymour, and two Budget initiative
templates submitted by Pharmac to the Ministry of Health.
You may also be interested in documents proactively released by Treasury, which wil be
available in due course at:
www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/budgets/budgetinformationreleases20052024
202425195
Draft versions of documents and analysis informing those documents have been withheld in
ful under section 9(2)(g)(i) of the Act. It is important that Pharmac staff are able to freely
canvass and discuss options during the Budget bid construction process. If early thinking and
commentary were to be released under the Act, it would inhibit staff from engaging in robust
discussion and debate, which may impact the quality of advice and Budget bids.
Where information has been withheld under section 9 of the Act, I have considered the public
interest in the release of this information and decided that it does not outweigh the need to
withhold at this time.
We trust that this information answers your queries. Please note, you have the right to make
a complaint to the Ombudsman about our response to your OIA, under section 28(3) of the
OIA. Details of
how to make a complaint are on the Ombudsman’s website.
To make information more freely available, we publish selected OIA responses (excluding
personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about
this.
Nāku noa, nā
Oliver Whitehead
Team Leader, Government Services
202425195
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