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[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
10 July 2025
Marcus W
[FYI request #31289 email]
Our ref: OIA 122958
Tēnā koe Marcus
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 12 June 2025 requesting information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act), regarding the minimum period of imprisonment. Specifically,
you requested:
(1) First, please disclose data that the Ministry has regarding the number of MPIs
imposed by Judges every year from 2002 up to the most recent data, presumably
2024.
(2) Second, please disclose the number of successful appeals where MPIs have been
quashed by an appellate court. I note that such appeals are treated as appeals against
sentence. It would be greatly appreciated if this request could be broken down by year
and Court level too if possible. The date for this request can be from 2010 onwards.
On 18 June 2025, the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry) sought clarification on your request
under section 15 of the Act. On 22 June 2025, you confirmed the fol owing:
1. You’ve asked whether, by MPI, I am referring to non-parole periods. The answer is
not exactly. Under s 84 of the Parole Act 2002, the default non-parole period is
one-third of the sentence. However, under s 86 of the Sentencing Act 2002, a
judge can impose a MPI. By doing so, the judge specifies that the offender must
serve more than the standard one-third before being eligible for parole. For
example, if the sentence is 12 years, the default non-parole period would be 4
years (one-third). But if the judge imposes a 50% MPI, the offender must serve 6
years before parole eligibility. So, to clarify my question, I am seeking data on how
often judges have imposed MPIs - essentially how many cases where they have
overridden the default non-parole period and set a longer minimum term.
2. Regarding question 2, I am just seeking how many MPIs have been imposed by a
Judge at a defendant's sentencing. In other words, just more generally. How many
MPIs are imposed in cases every year. I do not need that to be broken by charge or at
a defendant level.
3. I am not seeking data on how many convictions have been quashed. I am only
interested in how many appeals have been successful in removing an MPI imposed by
a sentencing judge - by appeals, I mean appeals against sentence. To answer the
second part of your question, I am specifically asking for information on successful
sentence appeals where the MPI was removed/quashed. I am not concerned with
cases where an MPI was removed as a consequence of a successful conviction
appeal, as that would mean the MPI was set aside only because the conviction itself
was overturned.
The Ministry does not hold this data in the format you requested. Fulfil ing your request
would require manually reviewing individual files held across multiple systems. Therefore, I
am refusing your request under section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot
be made available without substantial col ation and research.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
Official Information Act responses | New Zealand Ministry of Justice
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28 of the Act. The Office of the Ombudsman may be contacted
by phone on: 0800 802 602, by email at: [email address], or via the
webform:
Make a complaint (for members of the public) | Ombudsman New Zealand
Nāku noa, nā
Andrea King
Group Manager, Senior, Employment, Environment and Coroners Courts
