Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
DX SX10088 | Wellington
T 04 918 8800 |
F 04 918 8820
[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
25 March 2026
David Roberts
[FYI request #33795 email]
Our ref: OIA 130295
Tēnā koe David
Official Information Act request: Court ordered victim reparations
Thank you for your email of 21 February 2026 to the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry),
requesting under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), information regarding court
ordered victim reparations.
Specifically, you requested:
Please supply the total Dollar amount of unpaid/outstanding court ordered victim
reparations as at 1 January 2026.
Please refer to
Table 1 below, which contains the information within the scope of your
request. It details the total amounts of overdue and outstanding reparation as at 31
December 2025.
The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring victims who have suffered emotional harm,
had their property damaged or have experienced financial loss as a result of a crime, receive
the reparation they are owed. Victims are our priority, and therefore enforcing these judicial
orders is critical y important.
A judge can make a reparation order, and determine its value, when an offender is being
sentenced. This order will outline how reparation is made – either immediately, or they are
given 28 days to make full payment or to have a payment plan in place. When this doesn’t
happen, the court may take enforcement action such as wage or bank deductions, an
offender’s property can be seized, or their driver’s licence can be suspended.
When reparation is ordered, the court will send a notice to the victim advising them of the
reparation amount and requesting contact details and a valid bank account number to
ensure payments can be accurately processed. In some instances, collecting reparation can
take time, especially if the offender is serving a prison sentence.
Reparation is col ected from the offender by the court, and the Ministry of Justice sends
those payments to the victim’s nominated bank account. It is important for people who are
owed money to keep their contact and banking details up to date. If these details change,
they should contact Collection Services on 0800 909 909.
When the court doesn’t have the right information to pass on payments, we will attempt to
contact the victim. To avoid delays, we encourage anyone owed reparation to ensure their
details are up to date by contacting Col ection Services.
Additionally, to help collect outstanding payments, the Ministry actively looks to locate and
contact people who owe fines or reparation through data matching agreements. The
agreements are held with third party agencies such as the Inland Revenue Department and
the Ministry of Social Development.
Work is also underway to make the collection of debts more efficient. This includes the use
of automatic number plate recognition technology being trialled by bailiffs to help them
identify vehicles owned by individuals or companies with outstanding fines and reparation
more efficiently.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
Official Information Act responses | New Zealand Ministry of Justice.
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28 of the Act. The Office of the Ombudsman may be contacted
by phone on: 0800 802 602, by email at: [email address], or via the
webform:
Make a complaint (for members of the public) | Ombudsman New Zealand.
Nāku noa, nā
Louisa Carrol
Acting Group Manager, National Court Services
Table 1: Amounts of reparation overdue and reparation outstanding as at
31 December 2025
31 December 2025
Reparation outstanding
$107,118,993
ACT 1982
This table is live and subject to change.
INFORMATION
RELEASED UNDER THE OFFICIAL
