[IN-CONFIDENCE - RELEASE EXTERNAL]
16/01/2026
Phillip Fry
[FYI request #33143 email]
Tēnā koe Phillip
OIA: GEMS-46187 – Records relating to previous requests
Thank you for your email of 5 December 2025 to the Ministry of Education (the Ministry) requesting
the following information:
All information held by the Ministry relating to the processing of my previous OIA request
submitted on October 19 (OIA: 1354236, 1354237, 1354239, 1354242, 1354246 – Student
Monitoring, Assessment and Reporting Tool (SMART) )
1. Internal Tracking and Assignment
•
All internal correspondence, logs, or records showing when my request was first
received, assigned, or acknowledged within the Ministry.
•
The date and time any staff member or team was first alerted to my request.
2. Escalation and Awareness
•
Any record, email, or message indicating whether the request was escalated, and if
so:
o
to whom
o
when
o
and for what reason.
3. Senior Leadership Notification
•
Any correspondence showing whether senior Ministry leaders (including the
Secretary for Education, Deputy Secretaries, or acting equivalents) were:
o
informed of the request,
o
consulted on it,
o
or involved in decisions relating to the extension or collation of information.
4. Reasoning Behind the 40-Day Extension
•
Any written analysis, internal advice, emails, or notes used to justify the 40-day
extension, including:
o
assessments of “substantial collation”
o
consultation requirements
o
or any other grounds considered.
5. Communications With the Minister’s Office
•
Any communications between the Ministry and the Minister’s Office relating to:
o
the request,
o
the extension,
Wellington National Office, 1 The Terrace, Levels 5 to 14, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140, DX SR51201 Phone: +64 4 463 8000
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o
or questions raised at the Education and Workforce Select Committee regarding
this OIA.
6. Internal Comms/Media Involvement
•
Any communications [in relation to this OIA request] involving:
o
the Ministry’s Communications team,
o
Risk/Issues teams, or
o
Legal Services.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The Ministry logs and tracks official information requests in a workflow system, along with key
correspondence in the development of the response. The central Official and Parliamentary
Information team then allocates incoming requests via a dashboard, assigning them to an Advisor
in the team based on capacity and prior subject-matter exposure. The Advisor assesses the
request and commissions it to the relevant business unit for subject-matter input.
Correspondence and other communications relating to your five concurrent requests are held
across multiple teams and individuals and across multiple channels, and the appropriate avenue
for raising concerns about the handling of a request under the Act is the Office of the Ombudsman,
as advised in the response provided to you. I am therefore refusing your overarching request under
section 18(h) of the Act, as it is frivolous or vexatious.
However, I can advise in response to
part one of your request that, as you made five concurrent
requests on the same topic, these were logged in separate tickets but largely tracked in the first
ticket [ref. OIA: 1354236]. Those records show that OIAs: 1354236, 1354237, 1354239, 1354242
and 1354246 were received and acknowledged on 20 October 2025, and were assigned to and
Advisor and commissioned to the business unit for input on 21 October 2025.
In response to
parts two, three and five of your request, after the initial commissioning referred to
above, your requests were discussed with the Curriculum and Assessment Change Programme
team on 23 October 2025, at which time it was determined that the Procurement team would also
need to provide input. The response then followed a standard process whereby information in
scope is collated, any narrative required for the response is drafted and internally reviewed, and
any consultations are undertaken. The Office of the Secretary for Education and the Office of the
Minister of Education were also provided a copy of the final response for noting.
The Ministry’s standard process for approval of official information requests is that the business
unit is responsible for collation and assessment of material and the final decision and sign-out on
the request. Technical advice and drafting of the response are provided by the Official and
Parliamentary Information team, and the approach and proposed response are signed off by the
Manager Official and Parliamentary Information before forwarding for final approval in the business
unit.
The business unit determines appropriate sign-out of the final response based on internal
delegations. However, decisions on extensions are delegated to the Official and Parliamentary
Information team, based on the business unit’s assessment of the time required to collate the
material, and any consultations necessary to make a decision on the request.
OIA: GEMS-46187
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In the case of your requests, the response was approved through the Curriculum and Assessment
Change Programme sign-out chain up to General Manager level, before being passed to the
Procurement team for final approval, and signed out by the Chief Procurement Officer.
Regarding
part four of your request, as noted above, decisions on extension are delegated to the
Official and Parliamentary Information team to determine based on the circumstances surrounding
the request, including having regard to availability of resourcing to complete the required work.
Given a significantly increased volume of information requests, correspondence and other
enquiries across all Ministry workstreams over the past several months, and a particular surge in
curriculum-related matters that require collation and input from the same small team of business
unit experts, we determined that a longer extension was required.
In response to
part six of your request, I can confirm that no input was sought on your requests
from any of the named teams.
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review my decision
on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this by writing to
[email address] or to Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Nāku noa, nā
Emma Drysdale
Manager Official and Parliamentary Information
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
OIA: GEMS-46187
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