OIA response time statistics
Mark Hanna made this Official Information request to Ministry of Social Development
The request was partially successful.
From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koutou,
For the past four years, I have been keeping records of the time it takes for various agencies to respond to requests I’ve made to them under the OIA and LGOIMA via the website fyi.org.nz. I’ve noticed, over this relatively small data set, that response times have fallen into three roughly equal groups:
- Responses received before the due date
- Responses received on the due date (the majority of which are received after 4pm)
- Responses received after the due date
I think this may be indicative of agencies disregarding the requirement that responses to requests must be sent as soon as reasonably practicable. However, this data set is relatively small and restricted to requests made by a single person.
I am interested in accessing more complete datasets to see if my anecdotal observations hold up. I am aware of statistics regarding OIA response times that have been published by the State Services Commission for 2015/16 and for 2016/17, however the closest statistic in these sets is the number or proportion of OIA requests “handled within the legislated timeframe”.
Unfortunately, this measurement obscures the behaviour I am trying to measure. If I applied the same measurement to my smaller data set, I would find that 69% of requests were handled within the legislated timeframe. However, that statistic does not reflect that fact that 45% of those requests only received a response on the last allowable day.
Please release the following information, from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017, broken down by request:
1. The date on which the request was received.
2. The date on which the request was answered.
2a. If the request was answered on the last allowable day, the time at which the request was answered
3. Whether or not the request was extended under section 15A of the OIA.
3a. If the request was extended, the date on which notice of the extension was sent to the requester.
3b. If the notice of extension was sent to the requester on the last allowable day, the time at which the notice of extension was sent to the requester.
3c. If the request was extended, the duration of the extension.
4. The outcome of the request (e.g. all information released, transferred to another agency).
Please provide all information in an accessible, searchable format. A spreadsheet format, such as CSV or XLSX, is preferable for tabular data.
Please also explain any relevant caveats that should be kept in mind when analysing this information, including the licence under which it is released.
If any part of my request is unclear, please don't hesitate to contact me.
If any of the information that I have requested is unavailable or would be difficult to retrieve, but similar information might be readily available, I would be happy to discuss altering or refining my request.
I am aware that the time at which responses and notifications of extensions were sent may not be recorded centrally and may be difficult or impossible to retrieve. If extracting this information is likely to require this request to be refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, please let me know, as in that case I would likely be happy to refine my request based on what information could be provided.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tēnā koe Mark Hanna
Thank you for your email received 16 April 2018, under the Official Information Act 1982. Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate officials at National Office to respond. You may expect a decision regarding your request to be sent to you as soon as possible.
Nā mātou noa, nā
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to help themselves to be safe, strong and independent
Ko ta mātou he whakamana tangata kia tū haumaru, kia tū kaha, kia tū motuhake
show quoted sections
From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koutou,
I'd like to update the request I sent yesterday regarding OIA response time statistics. I had asked for statistics for the period 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017, however this was a mistake. I had instead intended to ask for statistics for the period 1 July 2017 - 30 December 2017, please use that instead.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
From: Nicholas Ross
Ministry of Social Development
Dear Mr Hanna
On 16 April 2018 you emailed the Ministry requesting, under the Official
Information Act 1982, the following information:
· Please release the following information, from 1 July 2017 - 30
December 2017, broken down by request:
1. The date on which the request was received.
2. The date on which the request was answered.
2a. If the request was answered on the last allowable day, the time at
which the request was answered
3. Whether or not the request was extended under section 15A of the OIA.
3a. If the request was extended, the date on which notice of the extension
was sent to the requester.
3b. If the notice of extension was sent to the requester on the last
allowable day, the time at which the notice of extension was sent to the
requester.
3c. If the request was extended, the duration of the extension.
4. The outcome of the request (e.g. all information released, transferred
to another agency).
The Ministry has identified the information in scope of your request, but
requires additional time to prepare your response. A response will be
provided to you on or before 29 May 2018.
You will be provided with a table that shows all requests for information
made to the Ministry that were logged as Official Information requests for
the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 December 2017, including the date
received, date response was sent and the date the response was extended to
if applicable.
The following portions of your request are refused under section 18(f) of
the Act, as this is recorded on the individual responses, and would
require substantial collation to provide:
2a. If the request was answered on the last allowable day, the time at
which the request was answered
3a. If the request was extended, the date on which notice of the extension
was sent to the requester.
3c. If the request was extended, the duration of the extension.
4. The outcome of the request (e.g. all information released, transferred
to another agency).
If you wish to discuss this decision with us, please feel free to contact
[1][MSD request email]
If you are not satisfied with this decision, you have the right to seek an
investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make a
complaint is available at [2]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Nick Ross
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and
Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to help themselves to be safe, strong and
independent
Ko ta mātou he whakamana tangata kia tū haumaru, kia tū kaha, kia tū
motuhake
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are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
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-------------------------------
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[MSD request email]
2. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
20180530 signed response HANNA.pdf
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Hanna data for OIA response.xlsx
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Tēnā koe Mark Hanna
Please find attached the Ministry’s response to your Official Information Act request.
Nā mātou noa, nā
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to help themselves to be safe, strong and independent
Ko ta mātou he whakamana tangata kia tū haumaru, kia tū kaha, kia tū motuhake
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From: Mark Hanna
Tēnā koe,
Thank you for your response last month to my request about OIA response times. I’ve recently started trying to analyse the information you have released to me, and I’m not certain I’m correctly interpreting the column headings that have been used in the spreadsheet. I’d appreciate it if you could clarify them for me.
“Date Received” and “Date Due to Requestor” columns seem straightforward, with the latter being the original due date before a request may have been extended (though I noticed that for seven requests this date was not 20 working days after the date on which they were received). Likewise, the “Date response sent to Requestor” column also seems straightforward.
I am somewhat confused, however, about these three columns: “Extended Date Due to Requestor”, “Date Decision Communicated”, and “Revised due date following decision”.
Does “Date Decision Communicated” refer to the date on which the decision was communicated, but only if the information requested was not also sent at the same time? If this is not the case, I’m not sure what the difference is between “Date Decision Communicated” and “Date response sent to Requestor”.
I’m also unsure how to interpret both “Extended Date Due to Requestor” and “Revised due date following decision”. They each sound like they could refer to the updated due date following a notice of extension being sent to the requestor. Is the latter column something like an internal due date used by MSD in cases where a decision to release requested information is sent before the information is actually released, perhaps?
The SSC, which as you noted in your response does not exclude OIA requests handled by your media team (I don’t understand why those requests were excluded from the data released to me, as they are still OIA requests), says only 24 out of 747 OIA requests (3%) completed by MSD within Q3-4 2017 were not completed within the legislated timeframe.
However, based on how I’ve tried to interpret those spreadsheet columns, it looks as though 59 out of the 241 requests (24%) included in the spreadsheet were late. That’s clearly inconsistent with the statistics reported by the SSC, which is why I’m not confident that I’ve correctly interpreted the columns in the spreadsheet you’ve released.
If you could help me ensure I’m interpreting the spreadsheet column headings correctly, I would appreciate it. I hope that, since the information has already been previously prepared, it will be feasible to send a quick response.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tēnā koe Mark Hanna
I have attempted to pull your questions from the below and answer them,
please let me know if I have misinterpreted what you were asking, or
missed anything.
· Seven requests seem to have a due date that isn’t 20 days after
the date received
This is likely due to public Holidays, or could be due to an agreement
reached with the requestor (for instance following refinement of a request
when timeframes reset), without looking into the individual cases I
couldn’t say with certainty.
· The difference between “Extended Date Due to Requestor”, “Date
Decision Communicated”, and “Revised due date following decision”.
Date Decision Communicated
20 working days is the time to provide notice of a decision about a
request. The act stipulates in section 15 that a decision should be
communicated to a requestor “as soon as reasonably practicable”. Where
possible a response is provided at the same time as a decision, however in
some cases the information is not yet ready for release, but the Ministry
is aware of the decision that will be made. For example, data may still be
in the final stages of quality assurance, but the Ministry has decided
that this data will be released, with some numbers supressed to protect
individuals privacy. Another example is that it is has been decided a
large amount of documentation will be released subject to some redactions
but it takes time for the redactions to be made. As such the requestor is
contacted and informed of the decision – this is the “date decision
communicated.”
Extended Date Due to Requestor
An extension, seeks under section 15(a) an extension of the timeframe in
which to communicate said decision to the requestor this new date is
recorded as “Extended Date Due to Requestor”.
Revised due date following decision
The other column “Revised due date following decision” is an internal
tracker, not governed by legislation, to insure that following a decision
being communicated the response is provided to the requestor in a timely
manner, usually a decision letter sets out a date that the requestor can
expect a response, as mentioned while holding ourselves to this date is
not a legislative duty, we consider it in the spirit of the act.
· Why the response provided to you did not include OIA requests
handled by the media team
Reporting is not currently available to the extent you requested for OIAs
that did not go through a ‘formal OIA process’ via the Official &
Parliamentary Information Team. The extent of the Ministry’s reporting on
all OIAs received is available on the SSC website.
Nāku, nā
Jonathan Brown | Ministerial & Executive Services
Official & Parliamentary Information | Ministry of Social Development | Te
Manatu Whakahiato Ora
6th Floor | Aurora Centre | PO Box 1556 |
Wellington | New Zealand
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From: Mark Hanna
Kia ora Jonathan,
Thanks for your explanation, that was very helpful. I'm pretty confident I understand the data that's been provided now.
Ngā mihi,
Mark Hanna
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