IR-01-26-14060
7 July 2026
Lance Lavery
[FYI request #34447 email]
Dear Mr Lavery,
Request for information
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request dated 9 April 2026, in
which you asked for information regarding prison informant evidence.
My response to each part of your request can be found below.
1.
Any New Zealand Police policy, guideline, standard operating procedure, or
instruction governing the recruitment and use of prison informants as
witnesses in criminal proceedings, including any version current at the time of
the Operation Stockholm investigation (1989–1990) and any version current
today.
The part of your question relating to current guidelines about use of Prison Witnesses is
refused under section 18(d) of the Official Information Act 1982 as the information is
publicly available. This is contained in the below link.
https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/investigative-interviewing-
witness-guide-011024.pdf
The part of your question referring to guidelines from 1989 to 1990 is refused under
section 18(e) of the Official Information Act 1982 as this either does not exist or cannot be
found.
2.
Any internal review, investigation report, or lessons-learned document
produced by New Zealand Police following Harris's perjury conviction in
September 2017, relating to the Tamihere investigation specifically or to
prison informant practice general y.
I have sought this information from the group that deal with Lessons Learned information.
No information was found; therefore, this part of your request is refused under section
18(e) of the Official Information Act 1982 as it either does not exist or cannot be found.
3.
Any correspondence between New Zealand Police and Crown Law regarding
changes to practice or protocol on the use of prison informant evidence.
No information has been identified that would be within the scope of this part of your
request. Therefore, this part of your request is refused pursuant to 18(e) of the Official
Information Act 1982 as it either does not exist or cannot be found.
4.
Whether New Zealand Police maintains any register, database, or record of
individuals who have provided evidence as prison informants in criminal
proceedings, and if so, a description of what that register contains, not its
contents’.
Police maintain a Prison Inmate Witness Register which was established in August 2021.
These are witnesses who have gained information from other inmates, while also
incarcerated. They are not Informers pursuant to section 64 of the Evidence Act 2006.
The Prison Inmate Witness Register records the Police Operation name, the witness
name, and whether they gave evidence at a hearing/trial.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review of this response by the
Ombudsman. Information about making a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by cal ing 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Detective Inspector Kepal Richards
National Criminal Investigations Group
Police National Headquarters
