OIA25-0439
15 August 2025
Spencer Jones
[FYI request #31347 email]
Dear Spencer Jones
Thank you for your email of 19 June 2025 requesting information relating to the regulation of
industrial hemp in New Zealand. Your request has been considered under the Official
Information Act 1982 (OIA).
You requested the following:
1. **MPI’s Role in Industrial Hemp Oversight**
Al documents outlining MPI’s role in industrial hemp licensing, enforcement,
monitoring, and compliance since 2018. This includes internal guidelines, ministerial
briefings, staff training material, and operational workflows.
2. **Interagency Roles and Responsibilities**
Copies of any memoranda of understanding (MOUs), delegations of authority, joint
taskforces, or collaborative agreements between MPI and:
* Ministry of Health (including Medsafe),
* Ministry for the Environment (MfE),
* Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE),
specifically relating to oversight, regulation, compliance, policy development, or
standard setting for industrial hemp.
3. **Concerns about Duplication or Inefficiencies**
Any internal or interagency communications, consultation documents, or briefing
papers that raise concerns about duplication of roles, redundant regulatory
processes, or inefficiencies in the current industrial hemp regulatory model.
4. **Examples of Functional Overlap**
Any evidence, analysis, or correspondence identifying instances where the same
regulatory function (e.g. testing standards, compliance checks, licensing
assessments, policy oversight) has been undertaken by more than one agency.
5. **Cost and Administrative Impact**
Any impact assessments, cost-benefit analyses, or reviews conducted by or
provided to MPI regarding administrative overhead, duplicated effort, or regulatory
burden arising from multi-agency involvement in hemp sector governance since
2018.
On 18 July 2025, The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) extended the time limit to respond
to your request to 14 August 2025. You responded to this by asking us to prioritise the
following:
Charles Fergusson Building, 38–42 Bowen Street
PO Box 2526
Wel ington 6140, New Zealand
mpi.govt.nz
•
Any impact assessments, costings, or internal reviews of MPI’s regulatory role in
the hemp sector since 2022.
We have identified one document with information relating to reviews or discussions of MPI’s
regulatory role in the hemp sector since 2022. This is attached as Appendix One.
•
Any Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) or interagency agreements between
MPI and other departments (e.g., Ministry of Health, MBIE, or MfE) concerning
industrial hemp regulation.
•
Internal or interagency correspondence discussing duplication, overlap, or
coordination issues, even if limited to specific projects or years.
MPI does not hold any information related to these questions, or to questions 2, 3, 4, and 5
of your original request. Therefore, these parts of your request are refused under section
18(e) of the OIA –
that the document alleged to contain the information requested does not
exist.
Note that industrial hemp licencing is regulated under the Misuse of Drugs (Industrial Hemp)
Regulations 2006, which is administered by the Ministry of Health. MPI has no regulatory role
under the industrial hemp licencing regime and therefore has no interagency agreements
and no discussions of duplication or coordination issues.
The Ministry for Regulation is currently reviewing industrial hemp regulations. More
information can be found at https://www.regulation.govt.nz/our-work/what-weve-
done/industrial-hemp-ihemp/.
Please let us know if you would stil like us to provide information relating to the remaining
parts of your original request.
Should you have any concerns with this response, I would encourage you to raise these with
MPI at [email address]. Alternatively, you are advised of your right to
also raise any concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman. Contact details are: Office of the
Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143 or at [email address].
Yours sincerely
Sothea Tep
Manager Horticulture Policy for the Director Primary Sector Policy
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