IR-01-25-41230
18 February 2026
Will Evans
[FYI request #32819 email]
Dear Will
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request of 11 November 2025, in
which you asked for information regarding foreign officials visits and gifts to police.
My response to each part of your request can be found below.
1.
A list of in-person visits in New Zealand made by foreign officials to the Police
between January 1 2024 and the present. In this list please include the name or
position/job title of the person (or people) visiting, the country the visitor (or visitors)
represent, the government department (or departments) the visitor/visitors represent,
and the date of the visit (or a date range if the visit takes place over multiple days).
Please find attached a list of all in-bound visits made by foreign officials to Police between
1 January 2024 and 12 December 2025.
For the purposes of collation, Police have interpreted your request to mean engagements
with foreign officials that were formally invited and hosted via Police’s International
Service Group, Visits and Events team.
Engagements with the diplomatic community based in New Zealand, joint or specialist
operations, attendance of foreign officials at NZ based conferences, and visits hosted by
other government workgroups have been excluded as Police do not proactively collect
this information presently.
Parts of your request have been withheld under section 9(2)(a) to protect the privacy of
natural persons and 6(a) would be likely to prejudice the security or defence of New
Zealand or the international relations of the Government of New Zealand.
2.
A list of gifts given to the Police or any individual employees of the Police by foreign
government officials between January 1 2024 and the present. In this list please
include a description of the gift given, the name of the foreign official who gave the
gift, the official's position/job title if it is available, the country they represent, the
government department they represent if any, and the date the gift was given (if an
exact date isn't available, an approximation is fine
The information you have requested for the period 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2025 is
publicly available at
: Gift and hospitality register entries | New Zealand Police
For the period 1 July 2025 to 12 December 2025 please find attached a list of gifts from
foreign officials received by Police.
Police considers the interests requiring protection by withholding the information are not
outweighed by any public interest in release of the information.
Please note that as part of its commitment to openness and transparency, Police
proactively releases some information and documents that may be of interest to the
public. An anonymised version of this response may be publicly released on the New
Zealand Police website.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this
decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Chris Page
Director International Service Group
New Zealand Police
