Ia Tangata Review Resourcing
Penny Claridge made this Official Information request to Law Commission
The request was successful.
From: Penny Claridge
Dear Law Commission,
Pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982, I request the following information relating to the Law Commission's review "Ia Tangata: Protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics" (NZLC R150), covering the period from the referral by the Minister of Justice in November 2022 through to the presentation of the final report in September 2025 and any subsequent work responding to government or parliamentary inquiries.
Specific Information Requested
1. Staffing and Personnel Costs
Total Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) hours allocated to the Ia Tangata review, broken down by:
- Commissioners (including lead commissioner time)
- Senior legal and policy advisors
- Research staff
- Administrative and support staff
- Any other staff categories
Salary bands or average hourly rates for each staff category listed above.
Total personnel costs for the project, including:
- Salaries and wages
- ACC levies, KiwiSaver employer contributions and other employment on-costs
- Any overtime, allowances or additional payments
2. External Costs and Contracted Services
Total expenditure on external consultants, experts or contractors, including:
- Names of organisations or individuals contracted
- Nature of services provided (e.g., legal analysis, research, subject matter expertise, translation services, accessibility services)
- Contract values or total payments made
Expenditure on hui, consultation events and community engagement, including:
- Venue hire and catering
- Travel and accommodation for staff and participants
- Honoraria or koha paid to participants or advisors
Costs associated with translation services (te reo Māori and other languages) and accessibility services (large print, plain language versions, etc.)
Printing, publication and distribution costs for:
- Issues Paper (NZLC IP53)
- Final Report (NZLC R150)
- Executive summaries and brief summaries
- Any other published materials
3. Research and Information Gathering
Costs of any commissioned research papers, literature reviews or data analysis
Expenditure on legal database subscriptions, international law materials or other research resources specifically for this review
Costs associated with processing and analysing submissions (including the large volume of individual submissions received)
4. Technology and Administrative Costs
IT costs specific to the project (e.g., online submission platforms, consultation websites, data management systems)
Office overheads allocated to the project (if calculated separately)
Any other direct administrative costs
5. Total Project Cost
A summary statement of the total cost of the Ia Tangata review project from inception to completion, including all categories above
Breakdown by financial year (2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26)
Format Preference
I would be grateful if the information could be provided in a spreadsheet format (Excel or CSV) where appropriate, to facilitate analysis. However, I am happy to receive information in whatever format is most convenient for the Commission.
Yours faithfully,
Penny Claridge
From: Law Commission – COMM box
Law Commission
Tēnā koe Penny
Thank you for your request for information to Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission below.
We will try to respond to your request as soon as possible and no later than 25 March 2026, which is 20 working days after the day your request was received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.
If you have any queries, please feel free to email or call on the number below. If any additional factors arise that are relevant to your request, please contact us so that these can be taken into account.
Nāku noa,
nā Law Commission
Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission
PO Box 2590, Wellington 6140
Landline: 04 473 3453 | Website: www.lawcom.govt.nz
Kia whanake ngā ture o Aotearoa mā te arotake motuhake
Better law for Aotearoa New Zealand through independent review
show quoted sections
From: Louise Norton
Law Commission
Tçnâ koe Penny
I am writing regarding your official information request to Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission of 24 February 2026, below.
The Official Information Act requires that we advise you of our decision on your request no later than 20 working days after the day we received your request. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit and we are therefore writing to notify you of an extension of the time to make our decision, to 8 April 2026.
It is unusual for the Commission to extend a timeframe to respond to an OIA request as we are committed to responding to requests as soon as possible. However, an extension is necessary in this case because your request requires searching a large quantity of information and considerable collation, and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably interfere with our operations. The Commission is a very small organisation of fewer than 20 fulltime-equivalent staff. A larger organisation may have more sophisticated systems and software to be able to pull the information you have requested relatively easily, but our small size and limited resources require more manual processes.
The extension of time is also necessary for us to consult a large number of third parties who may be affected by the release of the information.
You have the right to complain to the Ombudsman about this extension. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you want to discuss this, you can contact Linda McIver, Pou Ârahi Ture | General Counsel at:
Phone: 04 473 3453
Email: [Law Commission request email]
Nâku noa, nâ
Louise Norton (she/her)
Kaitohutohu Pârongo | Information Adviser PO Box 2590, Wellington 6140
Landline: 04 914 4803 | Website: www.lawcom.govt.nz
Kia whanake ngâ ture o Aotearoa mâ te arotake motuhake Better law for Aotearoa New Zealand through independent review
show quoted sections
From: Law Commission – COMM box
Law Commission
2026.04.01 OIA 25 15 Response Penny Claridge Ia Tangata review resourcing.pdf
4.1M
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Tçnâ koe Penny
Please find attached Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission's first response to your official information request. This letter responds to parts 1, 3, 4 and 5 of your request. We will respond to part 2 of your request in a subsequent response.
Nâku noa, nâ
The Law Commission
PO Box 2590, Wellington 6140
Landline: 04 473 3453 | Website: www.lawcom.govt.nz
Kia whanake ngâ ture o Aotearoa mâ te arotake motuhake
Better law for Aotearoa New Zealand through independent review
show quoted sections
From: Law Commission – COMM box
Law Commission
Tçnâ koe Penny
I am writing regarding your official information request to Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission of 24 February 2026, below.
On 24 March 2026 we wrote to extend the due date for the response to 8 April 2026.
We responded to parts 1, 3, 4 and 5 of your request on 1 April 2026.
I am writing to notify of an extension of the time to make our decision on part 2 of your request to 22 April 2026. This extension is required for the Commission to undertake further consultation with parties who may be affected by the release of information in our response. If we can, we will respond earlier.
Nâku noa, nâ
The Law Commission
PO Box 2590, Wellington 6140
Landline: 04 473 3453 | Website: www.lawcom.govt.nz
Kia whanake ngâ ture o Aotearoa mâ te arotake motuhake Better law for Aotearoa New Zealand through independent review
show quoted sections
From: Law Commission – COMM box
Law Commission
2026.04.22 Law Commission OIA 25 15 Response 2 Penny Claridge Ia Tangata review resourcing.pdf
374K
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Tçnâ koe Penny
Please find attached Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission's first response to your official information request. This letter responds to part 2 of your request.
We responded to parts 1, 3, 4 and 5 of your request on 1 April 2026.
Nâku noa, nâ
The Law Commission
PO Box 2590, Wellington 6140
Landline: 04 473 3453 | Website: www.lawcom.govt.nz
Kia whanake ngâ ture o Aotearoa mâ te arotake motuhake Better law for Aotearoa New Zealand through independent review
show quoted sections
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