30 June 2026
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #34671 email]
Tēnā koe Erika
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00204965
Thank you for your email on 20 June 2026, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
(Health NZ) for the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA):
Dear hnzOIA,
The requested information has not been supplied. I refer to Question 4:
4. What is the total of settlements paid out to date by DHB district across the whole
country?
You have only supplied 2024. What about 2021-2024 please?
Question 1 & 2
" our staff would have to manual y review all individual pleadings across all districts. Health
NZ would need to divert personnel from their other core duties and allocate extra time to
complete this task...
, your request for costs associated with inhouse human resource or legal input under
section 18(g) of the OIA as the information is not held by Health NZ and we have no
grounds to believe that the information is held by another entity subject to the OIA."
So you pay the legal costs about cases for cases from people who don't even work there
anymore, but don't have break downs. Is that correct? Is there not a cost center in your
Oracle financials system for legal costs?
On the 25 June 2026, we asked you to refine your request and explained the launch of Health NZ
and the replacement of 20 independent District Health Boards (DHBs) all with their own systems,
structures and functions. The refinement request explained why your request as it stands would
require substantial manual collation and research to respond to. To date, we have not heard from
you.
Response
As you are aware from our response, reference HNZ00203454, generally, claims about the
vaccination order contain claims for both alleged breaches of contract and breaches of statutory
law as wel . However, the type of breach is not contained in a centralised database.
I wil respond to each question in turn.
What is the total of settlements paid out to date by DHB district across the whole country?
You have only supplied 2024. What about 2021-2024 please?
As explained in our initial response, reference: HNZ00203454 and subsequent suggested
refinement, we are working to centralise the current and future information
. Until the centralisation
is complete, we are reliant on individual districts and how they maintain their information. Prior to 1
July 2022 each DHB maintained its own systems for reporting information.
This is why to provide you with this information; staff across all districts would have to manual y
review all individual pleadings. To do this, we would need to divert personnel from their other core
duties, and a diversion of these resources would impair our ability to carry out our other core
functions. As such, your request is refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, as it requires
substantial collation and research.
I have considered whether fixing a charge for the supply of the information or extending
the timeframe for response would enable Health NZ to respond. I do not consider that
either option would remove the impact that supplying the information would have on our other
operations.
So, you pay the legal costs about cases for cases from people who don't even work there
anymore, but don't have breakdowns. Is that correct? Is there not a cost center in your
Oracle financials system for legal costs?
For the first part of your question
“so, you pay legal costs about cases from people who don’t even
work there anymore”, this is correct. Employment cases continue past the end of employment and
do not end because an employee has left the organisation. Health NZ is required to participate in
the process and continue to engage.
Health NZ has a cost centre for all employment law legal costs, however the spend is not reported
by the type of legal matter therefore we are unable to differentiate between employment matters
related (or not related) to the vaccine mandates or specific types of employment claims (such as
disadvantage, dismissal or breach of contract) without a manual review of each matter.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
pp
Matthew McLay Manager (OIA), Government Services
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
