Dear Mr Lawson

 

Official Information Act request

 

Thank you for your email of 12 April requesting the following information
under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):

 

Request 1:

 

I respectfully request that ACC Government Services provide to me under
the provision of the Official Information Act a copy of all policy
documents dating from 5 June 2009 through to 11 April 2017 inclusive  that
relate to ACC's management of long term claims.

 

Request 2:

 

As an ACC client, I further welcome the provision of copies of all policy
documents during the period 5 June 2009 through to 11 April 2017
inclusive  that relate to ACC's management of long term claims, in which
the implementation of the decisions noted in such papers have not yet been
initiated, and I expressly request that ACC Government Services do not
rely on Section 9 (g) (i) of the Official Information Act 1982, to
withhold such information.

 

I have asked ACC Government Services to withhold from using section 9 (g)
(i) as a reason to withhold this information since as I am an ACC long
term claimant myself, I would like to be informed as to any and all
pending changes to ACC's management of long term claims that have the real
possibility of impacting upon the claim service level that will be
afforded to me.

 

The provision of this information will also in the public's interest allow
me to make submissions to ACC with respect to any pending initiatives
through the ACC’s Consumer Outlook Group on matters that will have a
direct impact on myself, and other ACC clients.

 

Request 3:

 

Furthermore I request the provision of copies of all policy documents
during the period 5 June 2009 through to 11 April 2017 inclusive  that
relate to ACC's management of long term claims to include all policy
documents that were put forward for consideration and were either;

 

(1) not accepted and therefore did not proceed, and or

(2) partially accepted conditional upon amendments, and then progressed,

 

in addition to the information requested under Request 1 and Request 2 of
todays request. With the release of the information that I have
additionally requested under Request 3, please specify what policy
documentation was either (1) not accepted and therefore did not proceed,
and or (2) partially accepted conditional upon amendments, and then
progressed, supplying the supporting official information that validates
why the proposed new policy was either not proceeded with, or proceeded
with with amendments.

 

This email is to inform you that we are working on your request and will
be in touch with you as soon as possible, and certainly by 15 May 2017.

 

In the meantime, if you have any questions we will be happy to work with
you to resolve these. We can be contacted by email at
[email address].

 

 

Kind regards

 

Government Services

 

 

 

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Dear Mr Lawson,

 

We write in relation to your two emails of 12 April 2016 (one concerning
purchase orders regarding consultations with neurosurgeons and the other
concerning policy documents about long term claims) and that of 20 April
2017 (concerning agreements for services between ACC and DHBs).

 

1.     Request regarding purchase orders

In relation to your request concerning purchase orders, we note that you
have amended your request so that it relates to neurologists instead
of neurosurgeons. As you have asked that ACC deal with this matter with
urgency, and as you regularly request information from ACC and this might
inform future requests, we note that such an amendment has the effect of
allowing us to treat it as a new request under section 15(1AA) of the
Official Information act 1982 (the Act) and the response date would be
reset accordingly.

 

Notwithstanding that, after carefully considering your request, we have
reached the view that it is frivolous and the subject matter trivial. We
have accordingly decided to decline it under section 18(h) of the Act. In
taking that position, we make the observation that raising a purchase
order is a usual part of business and is neither controversial nor
particularly complicated. Any associated information will be at best
administrative in nature. 

 

2.     Request regarding policies and request concerning contracts between
ACC and DHBs

We wish to assure you that your requests are being progressed and our
response will be provided to you as soon as reasonably practicable and in
accordance with the Act, the present due dates being no later than 15 and
19 May 2017 respectively.

 

3.     Other matters

In addition to requesting the information discussed above, you have also
raised concerns about how and when ACC should provide the information to
you, we deal with each of these in turn below.

 

Acknowledgement letters/email

While we acknowledge requests as a courtesy, there is no requirement under
the Act for an agency to do so. You will recall that we advised you of
this in a letter of 21 April 2016 (in response to a request of 11 March
2016).

 

Quoting entire request in acknowledgement

You have asked that we provide an acknowledgement letter which sets out
your requests in full in order to prove to you that we fully understand
them. We do not consider that taking the action you propose would
constitute a responsible or reasonable use of our time or resources.
Accordingly we decline to do so. In taking that position we note that in
the event we do not understand a request there is a mechanism for
addressing this. The Act imposes certain obligations on how requests for
Official Information should be made and dealt with. Those obligations
extend not only to those responding to requests but also those making
them. Section 12 of the Act requires requests to be made with due
particularity. In the instance we are unsure or unclear about a request as
the result of a lack of due particularity, we are able to ask the
requestor to clarify or amend their request in order for it to conform
with the requirements of section 12.

 

The Ombudsman’s publication “Making official information requests” can be
found at the following link
[1]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resou...

 

The publication provides the following guidance in respect of making a
request with due particularity:

 

            Due particularity—your obligation as a requester

            Be as specific as you can in identifying the information you
want. Be open to communicating with the agency and helping the person
responsible for answering your request to understand what it is you are
looking for.

            The information you are requesting must be specified with ‘due
particularity’.20 This means that the person receiving the request must be
able to identify the information you have asked for.

            A request that lacks due particularity will not be valid and
the requirements of the OIA and/or LGOIMA will not apply.

 

In order to ensure that you receive the precise information you seek we
also note that requests that are free of prolix, repetition  and that
clearly and concisely describe the requested information will always be
easier to process than those that are not.

 

Urgency

You have asked us to confirm that we will reply to your requests urgently.
While the Act allows a requester to ask for a request to be processed
urgently (where they specify the reason for this), agencies are not bound
by such a request. Nor does the Act provide for the requestor to
unilaterally impose due dates in relation to a request for urgency.
Whether a response can be provided under urgency will depend on various
factors, including the complexity of the request, the time required to
form a response, and the workload of the agency.

 

While we note that you have alluded to the reason for urgency relating to
“pending review and appeal proceedings” you have not advised us of the
respective filing and hearing dates. Without that information it is
difficult to assess the merits of a request for urgency. If you require
the material you have requested urgently please advise us of the relevant
due dates so that we can properly consider your request. Please note that
where we identify a need for urgency it is open to us to charge for the
work required to complete the necessary work with urgency. We would of
course advise you of the relevant charge should that be necessary and
would not commence the required work until you had confirmed you were
happy for us to proceed by paying.

 

Queries or concerns

If you have questions about this response, you can contact us at
[2][email address] or in writing to Government Services,
PO Box 242, Wellington 6140.

You have the right to complain to the Office of the Ombudsman about our
response. You can call them on 0800 802 602 between 9am and 5pm on
weekdays, or write to The Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152,
Wellington 6143.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Government Services

 

 

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information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
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References

Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resou...
2. mailto:[email address]

Dear Mr Lawson

 

Please find attached our response to your request for information under
the Official Information Act 1982, dated 12 April 2017.

 

Yours sincerely

Government Services

 

 

 

Disclaimer:

"This message and any attachments may contain confidential and privileged
information. If you believe you have received this email in error, please
advise us immediately by return email or telephone and then delete this
email together with all attachments. If you are not the intended
recipient, you are not authorised to use or copy this message or any
attachments or disclose the contents to any other person."