13 March 2026
Spencer Jones
By email: [FYI request #33366 email]
Tēnā koe Spencer
Your request
Thank you for your request, received on 22 December 2025, under the Official Information Act
1982 (Act) for the following information:
Part A — Health-related enquiries: counts and categorisation (no content initially)
1. For the period 1 January 2018 to 1 September 2025, please provide the total count of
items in EA systems that match both:
• Keyword/phrase: “smart meter” (including smart-meter / smartmeter), and
• A health-related term: “health”, “headache”, “fatigue”, “EHS”, “electromagnetic
hypersensitivity”, “RF”, “EMF”.
2. For each item counted in (1), please provide an aggregate breakdown by:
• year received; and
• channel/type (e.g., email enquiry, webform, letter), if such a field exists.
(If the Authority does not have fields to categorise channel/type, please confirm that explicitly.)
Part B — De-identified summary table (only if low volume)
3. If the total count in (1) is 20 items or fewer, please provide a de-identified summary table
with the following columns only:
• date received (month/year is sufficient);
• brief issue category (one of: health symptoms alleged / request for removal / RF/EMF
exposure concern / other);
• outcome category (referred to retailer / provided general information / no action / other).
No names, email addresses, phone numbers, or addresses are sought.
Part C — Retained 2012 ESR/PHF correspondence (copy request)
4. Please release the 2012 email exchanges the Authority confirmed it holds (between the
former ESR National Radiation Laboratory / PHF Science and the Authority) regarding updates to
the smart meter FAQ and RF/EMF exposure statements, including any attachments, with privacy
redactions as required.
(If any attachments are missing, please confirm which attachments are not held.)
Part D — Record-keeping accountability for smart meter web content
5. Please provide an index (not the documents themselves) of EA records relating to the
“Smart Meter” webpage/FAQ approval or revision history for the period 1 January 2010 to 31
December 2015, limited to:
• document titles (or email subject lines),
• date,
• record type (e.g., email / memo / draft / web copy),
• repository (e.g., legacy DMS archive, file share migrated to SharePoint).
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E L E C T R I C I T Y A U T H O R I T Y R E P O R T : R E Q U E S T F O R
Our response
For sake of clarity, the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (Authority) will respond to each part of
your request in turn.
Part A — Health-related enquiries: counts and categorisation (no content initially)
1. For the period 1 January 2018 to 1 September 2025, please provide the total count of
items in EA systems that match both:
• Keyword/phrase: “smart meter” (including smart-meter / smartmeter), and
• A health-related term: “health”, “headache”, “fatigue”, “EHS”, “electromagnetic
hypersensitivity”, “RF”, “EMF”.
The Authority has run the search you specified through our systems, and there were 3954 results.
Please note, this number does not reflect the number of health enquires we have received relating
to smart meters. You may wish to refer to our previous response to OIA-25-0027 which sets out
the number of health enquiries relating to smart meters that we received from 2018 to 2025.
When searching for documents in scope of a request under the Act, the search system captures
everything from the Authority’s SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange server. This means it includes,
but is not limited to, emails, reports, briefings, presentations, requests/responses under the Act and
more. Some documents may be large and happen to include one or more of the keywords at
different points, in different contexts. Some files may also appear more than once, as they are
saved in different locations.
Furthermore, the search tool used captures any file that includes one of the keywords, and any
variety of this word. We do this to ensure we are capturing any information in scope and not
limiting it to a specific way of spelling a word. For example, the system may include a result if it
includes the word “health” even if it is part of another word such as “telehealth”.
2. For each item counted in (1), please provide an aggregate breakdown by:
• year received; and
• channel/type (e.g., email enquiry, webform, letter), if such a field exists.
(If the Authority does not have fields to categorise channel/type, please confirm that explicitly.)
This part of your request is refused under section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested
cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
Part B — De-identified summary table (only if low volume)
3. If the total count in (1) is 20 items or fewer, please provide a de-identified summary table
with the following columns only:
• date received (month/year is sufficient);
• brief issue category (one of: health symptoms alleged / request for removal / RF/EMF
exposure concern / other);
• outcome category (referred to retailer / provided general information / no action / other).
No names, email addresses, phone numbers, or addresses are sought.
As this part of your request is dependent on the search in (1) producing under 20 items, we
understand that this request does not require a response. If our interpretation is incorrect then we
rely on section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available without
substantial collation or research
Part C — Retained 2012 ESR/PHF correspondence (copy request)
4. Please release the 2012 email exchanges the Authority confirmed it holds (between the
former ESR National Radiation Laboratory / PHF Science and the Authority) regarding updates to
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E L E C T R I C I T Y A U T H O R I T Y R E P O R T : R E Q U E S T F O R
the smart meter FAQ and RF/EMF exposure statements, including any attachments, with privacy
redactions as required.
(If any attachments are missing, please confirm which attachments are not held.)
These documents are attached as Appendix One. Some information is being withheld under the
following section of the Act:
• 9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of natural persons.
Part D — Record-keeping accountability for smart meter web content
5. Please provide an index (not the documents themselves) of EA records relating to the
“Smart Meter” webpage/FAQ approval or revision history for the period 1 January 2010 to 31
December 2015, limited to:
• document titles (or email subject lines),
• date,
• record type (e.g., email / memo / draft / web copy),
• repository (e.g., legacy DMS archive, file share migrated to SharePoint).
The Authority is providing you with an index of emails relating to the revision or approval of the
Smart Meter FAQ webpage from 2010-2015. This is attached as Appendix Two. Please note, we
are unable to easily identify which repository these records were sourced from, but we can confirm
they came from either the Microsoft SharePoint or Exchange server.
I am satisfied, in terms of section 9(1) of the Act, that the need to withhold the information referred
to above is not outweighed by other considerations that render it desirable, in the public interest, to
make the information available.
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.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, the Authority may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All personal data, including your name and contact
details, will be removed before publication.
If you’d like to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact us by emailing
[Electricity Authority request email].
Nāku noa, nā,
Airihi Mahuika
GM Legal, Monitoring and Compliance
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