Dear Public Service Commission,

Kia ora,
Under the Official Information Act 1982, I request:

How the Public Service Commissioner assesses whether chief executives are meeting their obligation under section 52 of the Public Service Act 2020 to provide advice to their Minister on the "long-term implications of policies" specifically in relation to cross-portfolio impacts such as the health or mortality consequences of economic policy decisions.

Whether any chief executive performance review since the Public Service Act 2020 came into force has assessed the quality of cross-portfolio impact advice, particularly where policy decisions in one portfolio (e.g., Finance, Social Development) foreseeably affect outcomes in another (e.g., Health).

Any guidance issued by the Commissioner under section 12 of the Public Service Act 2020 regarding the stewardship obligation as it applies to cross-portfolio health or mortality impacts of economic policy.

Whether the Commissioner has identified, in any review of the state of the public service, a gap in cross-agency coordination on the health or mortality impacts of economic, fiscal, or monetary policy.

Any assessment of whether the "spirit of service to the community" under section 13, and the stewardship principle under section 12, require agencies to proactively advise ministers when policy decisions in their portfolio may increase mortality or health system demand even where another agency nominally "owns" the affected outcome.

If no guidance, review, or assessment described in items 1-5 exists, confirmation of this in writing.

I make this request because I have documented the following through OIA responses:
Health NZ has confirmed it does not model economic determinants of health demand. Stats NZ has confirmed the data infrastructure to analyse economic policy and mortality correlations exists but is used only by academic researchers, not by government. Treasury has been presented with the NZ Census-Mortality Study showing income-mortality associations but does not appear to have commissioned equivalent analysis of its own policy settings.
Each agency's chief executive can point to their mandate and say "not my responsibility." The question is whether the Public Service Commissioner as the person responsible for assessing stewardship performance considers this acceptable. Section 52 requires chief executives to provide advice on long-term policy implications. If nobody is advising ministers that economic policy decisions correlate with deaths despite established NZ research demonstrating this then the stewardship obligation is not being met across the system.
If any information is to be withheld, please specify the grounds under the OIA for each withheld item.
If this request requires substantial collation or research, please contact me to discuss narrowing the scope before refusing under section 18(f).
I expect a response within 20 working days as required by section 15.
Ngā mihi,

Yours faithfully,

Hayden