7 November 2025
OIAD-1764
Phoebe Robertson
[FYI request #32387 email]
Tēnā koe Phoebe
Thank you for your email of 25 September 2025 making the following request under the
Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) of the Ministry for the Environment (the Ministry):
“I request the following information relating to internal staff complaints made to Human
Resources between 30 June 2021 and 31 August 2025.
1. Total Complaints & Monthly Breakdown Please provide: • The total number of internal staff complaints raised with HR (including, but not limited
to, complaints relating to bullying, harassment, discrimination, cultural safety, or
psychologically unsafe environments) • A monthly breakdown of these complaints over the requested period, to allow
identification of trends
2. Resolution Pathways For the complaints identified above, please advise: a. How many were formally investigated b. How many were informally closed, redirected, or deemed “resolved without
investigation” c. How many were withdrawn by the complainant • If recorded, please include any noted reasons for withdrawal (e.g. staff exit,
concern about reprisal, mediation) d. The outcome of each complaint, recorded in aggregated form, e.g.: • No action taken • Informal resolution • Escalated to formal action or investigation • Referred to external mediator • Staff resignation or exit • Disciplinary action e. How many complaints remained open or unresolved for longer than 6 months, and
how many remained unresolved after 12 months f. Of the complaints that were closed informally or not investigated, how many were
closed with no documented follow-up action or engagement with the complainant? 3. Time to Resolution • The average and median time taken to resolve or close complaints, measured from
the date of receipt to final resolution or closure • If feasible, a comparison between complaints that were formally investigated and
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
1
those informally closed or redirected 4. Complaint Characteristics
If recorded, please provide an aggregated breakdown of complaints by: • Business group / Directorate • Ethnicity of the complainant (e.g. Māori, Pākehā, Pacific, Asian) • Nature or category of complaint (e.g. bullying, harassment, discrimination, cultural
safety concerns, unsafe workplace) • Whether the complaint involved the conduct of a manager or team leader • Whether the complainant exited the Ministry within 12 months of the complaint being
made 5. Multiple Complaints & Repeat Concerns If recorded, please advise: • Whether any individuals (particularly those in managerial or leadership positions)
were the subject of more than one complaint during the period • An anonymised count of such repeat instances (e.g., “3 managers were subject to 2
or more complaints each between 2021–2025”) 6. Reporting to Senior Leadership Please provide any internal guidance, policy, or documented practice that sets out: • When and how complaints about managers or team leaders are required to be
reported to: • the relevant General Manager • the Chief Executive • the People & Culture Governance Group, Audit & Risk Committee, or other
internal forums • Whether the Ministry has a threshold or risk rating system to determine which
complaints are escalated to senior leadership • Whether complaints involving repeat allegations or staff exits are flagged or tracked
at a leadership or governance level
7. Manager–Manager Complaint Dynamics Please advise: • How complaints made about managers by other managers (e.g. inter-leader bullying,
conflict, or misuse of process) are managed • Whether there are internal rules or protections in place to ensure such complaints are
independently investigated, and not handled by close peers or reporting lines (e.g. a
GM and their direct reports)
8. Transparency of Investigations & Risk Tracking
• Whether the Ministry maintains any risk register, dashboard, or tracking tool that
monitors:
• The volume and category of internal HR complaints
• The number of unresolved or repeat complaints involving the same individuals
• Complaints with themes of psychological harm, cultural safety, or retaliation
• If such a register or tool exists, please provide:
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
2
• A high-level description of its structure and oversight
• Which teams or leadership roles have access to it
9. Escalation Frameworks Please provide: • Any internal HR policies, guidance documents, or decision-making frameworks that
outline how complaints are assessed and escalated to: • Senior leadership • The Chief Executive • Internal governance or assurance forums • Any specific criteria or thresholds used to determine when a complaint should be: • Formally investigated • Escalated to an external mediator • Reported to internal audit or external bodies”
As the Ministry's staff complaint data is categorised by month and year, I am providing a
response to your request based on data from 1 July 2021 to 31 August 2025. I have
provided a response to each of your questions below.
1. Total Complaints & Monthly Breakdown
The Ministry received three internal staff complaints between 1 July 2021 and 31 August
2025. These are broken down by month in Table 1:
Table 1: Number of complaints by month
Month
Number of complaints
July 2022
1
May 2025
1
June 2025
1
2. Resolution Pathways
Table 2 provides a response to each of these questions. Please note that the outcomes
listed are not mutually exclusive for a particular complaint.
Table 2: Complaint categories
Complaint category
Number of complaints
Formally investigated
1
Informally closed, redirected, or deemed “resolved without
1
investigation
Withdrawn by the complainant
0
Outcome: Informal resolution
1
Outcome: Escalated to formal action or investigation
1
Outcome: Staff resignation or exit
2
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
3
Remained open or unresolved for longer than 6 months
0
Remained open or unresolved for longer than 12 months
0
Of the complaints that were closed informally or not
investigated, closed with no documented follow-up action or
0
engagement with the complainant
3. Time to Resolution
The Ministry has closed two of the three complaints to date, and both complaints were active
for two months, measured from the date of receipt to final resolution or closure. As such,
both the average and median times for a complaint within the requested time period are two
months. The average and median times for a formally investigated complaint and an
informally closed or redirected complaint are also two months.
4. Complaint characteristics
I am withholding the number of complaints broken down by ethnicity of the complainant
under section 9(2)(a) of the Act to protect the privacy of natural persons. As the number of
complaints is low, releasing this information alongside other data such as the monthly
breakdown and business group could risk identifying individual complainants.
Table 3 below provides data to answer the remainder of these questions. Please note that
the business group structure of the Ministry changed on 1 December 2023 as part of a wider
restructure, so I have noted where a business group is no longer active.
Table 3: Complaint characteristics
Complaint characteristic
Number of complaints
Business Group
Policy Implementation and Delivery (no longer active)
1
Business Transformation and Services
1
Climate Change Mitigation and Resource Efficiency
1
Nature of complaint
Bullying and Harassment
3
Behaviour/Conduct
0
Discrimination
0
Other characteristics
Involved the conduct of a manager or team leader
1
The complainant exited the Ministry within 12 months of the
2
complaint being made
5. Multiple Complaints & Repeat Concerns
I have not identified any recorded instances of individuals, including those in managerial or
leadership roles, being the subject of more than one complaint during the requested period.
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
4
6. Reporting to Senior Leadership
I have identified three documents in scope of this question, as outlined in in the document
schedule below. I am releasing these three documents to you in full:
•
Investigating Misconduct and the Disciplinary Process explains the steps we
take to investigate allegations of misconduct or serious misconduct, and the formal
disciplinary process that may follow if warranted.
•
Raising a Complaint or Concern outlines our process and available options for
handling complaints.
•
Speaking Up and the Protected Disclosures Act provides guidance on how to
raise concerns about wrongdoing within the Ministry.
7. Manager–Manager Complaint Dynamics
The Ministry does not have any specific internal rules or procedures requiring that such
complaints be independently investigated or handled outside of existing reporting lines.
However, a People Management Delegations procedure is in place to determine who will
undertake an investigation. This is applied on the condition that no individual may investigate
a matter in which they are directly involved or named in the complaint. I am releasing this
document to you in full.
8. Transparency of Investigations & Risk Tracking
The Ministry maintains a spreadsheet to log and track staff complaints, which the People
and Services team and the People and Capability General Manager have access to. The
table below outlines the categories of information that the Ministry collects and logs against
complaints raised:
Data Field
Category
Description
Risk Level
• Low
• Medium
• High
Employee Name
The name of the complainant.
Business Group
The Ministry Business Group that
the complainant reports to.
Position title
The complainant’s position at the
Ministry.
Manager Name
The line manager of the
complainant.
BP/Advisor
The People & Capability
advisor/point of contact for the
complaint.
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
5
Start date
The date that the complaint was
raised.
Status
• Formal
• Informal
Type
• Bullying/Harassment
How the Ministry categorises the
• Medical/Wellbeing
incident, noting that only the
• Behaviour / Conduct
categories relevant to bullying
• Disciplinary Serious
and harassment have been
Misconduct
included here. A complaint can
• Personal Grievance
be logged as multiple types.
• Informal Grievance
• Internal Relationship
Issues
• Performance
Remote worker/
Details around the complainant’s
working from
usual location of work and
home setup
working pattern if relevant to the
complaint.
Details/Overview
Notes; a brief summary of the
case.
Date Closed
The date that the complaint is
closed/resolved.
Breach of Code
• Yes
of Conduct
• No
Serious
• Yes
Misconduct
• No
Settlement
Details of the settlement
details
agreement, if relevant/available.
9. Escalation Frameworks
I have identified three documents in scope of this question as outlined in the document
schedule. These are the same documents in scope of Question 6, as noted above.
In terms of section 9(1) of the Act, I am satisfied that, in the circumstances, the withholding
of information in this request is not outweighed by other considerations that render it
desirable to make the information available in the public interest.
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
6
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of the Ombudsman of
my decisions relating to this request, in accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. The
relevant details can be found a
t: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Please note that due to the public interest in our work, the Ministry publishes responses to
requests for official information shortly after the response has been sent on our website at:
https://environment.govt.nz/about-us/official-information-act-requests/. If you have any
queries about this, please feel free to contact our Ministerial Services team at:
[email address]. Nāku noa, nā
Tracey Kaio
General Manager – People and Capability
Ministry for the Environment | Manatū Mō Te Taiao
PO Box 10362, Wellington 6143 | Freephone 0800 499 700 | environment.govt.nz
7
Document schedule
Questions Title
Decision
6, 9
Investigating misconduct and disciplinary process
Released in full
6, 9
Raising a complaint or concern
Released in full
6, 9
Speaking up and the Protected Disclosures Act
Released in full
7
People management delegations
Released in full
