Under the Official Information Act 1982, I request the following information relating to ACC’s use of external legal providers, investigative contractors, and independent medical assessors for the period 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2025 (or the most recent period available).

This request focuses on aggregated financial data, governance frameworks, and contract structures only.

1. External Legal Services (Litigation, Reviews, ICRA, Advisory)
1.1 Annual total expenditure on external legal services for each financial year 2019/20–2024/25, broken down by:

ICRA representation

FairWay Review representation

District Court appeals

High Court litigation

Court of Appeal / Supreme Court matters

Specialist advisory work

Panel-provider costs

(If already held in internal summary or dashboard form, providing that report satisfies this request.)

1.2 Number of matters referred externally vs internally each year, for:

ICRA

Reviews

District Court appeals

High Court appeals

2. Private Investigators & External Fact-Finding Contractors
2.1 Total annual expenditure on private investigators or contracted fact-finding services, including surveillance providers, for each financial year 2019/20–2024/25.

2.2 A high-level list of categories of investigative services used, such as:

surveillance

social-media scanning

background checks

workplace or functional-capacity observation

site or circumstance investigations

(not requesting provider identities)

3. Independent Medical Examiners (IMEs) & Panel-Assessor Governance
3.1 A copy of ACC’s current governance, procurement, and quality-assurance framework for:

Independent Medical Examiners

specialist assessors

vocational and functional assessors

mental-health and neuropsychological assessors

This may include any documents outlining:

selection and accreditation processes

training or competency requirements

performance-monitoring systems

audit mechanisms

conflict-of-interest management

escalation or removal procedures

If extensive, an index of documents is sufficient.

3.2 Aggregate annual expenditure on IME and panel assessments, broken down by assessment type if held in that form.

4. Contractual Structures & Oversight
4.1 High-level description or copy of any internal policies relating to:

when external legal services should be used in preference to internal counsel

when private investigators may be engaged

how IMEs are selected for ICRA, reviews, or court matters

monitoring and auditing of external providers

thresholds for escalation to external legal or investigative resourcing

(Again, if documents are extensive, an index is acceptable.)

Format

I request the above in electronic format (Excel, PDF, or internal summary documents).

If any part of this request is likely to exceed reasonable collation, please advise so I may refine it.

Thank you for your assistance.

Kind regards,
Spencer Jones