Dear Andrew

 

Thank you for your request to the Ministry of Justice under the Official
Information Act.  

 

It has come to or attention that a small number of emails from the FYI
website, including yours, were inadvertently blocked by our email provider
due to a change in settings.  The issue has now been resolved, but there
will be a slight delay in responding to your request as we only received
it on 13 June 2018.  We will respond as soon as practicable, and no later
than 11 July (unless extended or transferred).  We apologise for any
inconvenience.

 

Regards

 

Antony

 

 

   

[1]Description: Description: Description: Antony Paltridge
http://justice.govt.nz/courts/shared/jus...
Team Leader (Media and
External Relations) |
Communication Services
DDI: +64 4 918 8980

[2]www.justice.govt.nz

 

 

 

Dear Ministry of Justice,

This email contains two OIA requests, the first made under section 23 of
the OIA, the second under section 12.

In your response of 28 May 2018 to an earlier Official Information Act
(OIA) request I made - [3]https://fyi.org.nz/request/7805-exclusio... -
the Ministry refused to disclose document 6, 'Drafting instructions to
Parliamentary Counsel (20 May 2014)' under section 9(2)(h) of the OIA.
This is a decision that affected me in a personal capacity (section 23 of
the OIA refers), as it affected my right to information under the OIA.

In your supplementary response of 30 May 2018 to the same request, the
Ministry drew my attention to section 61 of the Legislation Act 2012, and
in the course of considering whether or not to release the drafting
instructions noted that it considered that the privilege had been waived
'insofar as the instructions relate to recommendation 37.'

I am grateful for the results of the Ministry's reconsideration of whether
to disclose document 6. Notwithstanding this, I think it would be helpful
to try and clarify public understanding of the Ministry's view of the
interaction between the OIA and the Legislation Act. The educational
effect of such a clarification is, I believe, a factor favouring the
public interest in disclosure of the information sought below.

Section 61 of the Legislation Act provides that instructions for drafting
legislation received by the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) from any
client, and any drafts prepared by or on behalf of the PCO, are subject to
legal professional privilege.

However, section 9(1) of the OIA specifies that information may only be
withheld on the basis of maintaining legal professional privilege (section
9(2)(h)) if 'in the circumstances of the particular case' the reason for
withholding is not 'outweighed by other considerations which render it
desirable, in the public interest, to make that information available.'

I consider that that the Ministry of Justice (which administers both the
Legislation Act and the OIA) is the agency most likely to hold information
(both recorded and unrecorded) about the interaction of section 61 of the
Legislation Act 2012 and section 9 of the OIA 1982.

Request 1
Under section 23 of the OIA, please provide me with:

(a) the finding on material issues of fact relating to the Ministry's
decision of 28 May 2018 that the public interest in disclosure of document
6 (the drafting instructions to PCO of 20 May 2014) did not outweigh the
necessity of maintaining legal professional privilege;

(b) a reference to the information on which those findings were based; and

(c) the Ministry's reasons for its decision that the public interest in
disclosure of document 6 (the drafting instructions to PCO of 20 May 2014)
did not outweigh the necessity of maintaining legal professional
privilege.

Please note that, as per section 23(1) of the OIA, section 9(2)(h) legal
professional privilege is not a withholding ground that can apply to
requests made under section 23.

Request 2
Under section 12 of the OIA, please provide me with:

(a) all information held by the Ministry relating to design, purpose and
intent of the provision that became section 61 of the Legislation Act
2012;

(b) all information held by the Ministry relating to the interaction of
section 61 of the Legislation Act 2012 and the OIA 1982.

If any of this information is not recorded in writing, please make and
supply me with a written note of the information on this topic known to
Ministry officials, as the Ombudsmen have made clear that that
'information held' by a department includes unrecorded information held by
officials in their heads.

As per section 16 of the OIA, I would like to receive this information as
electronic attachments to your email responding to this request. Also as
per section 16, my preference is to receive any documents in the native
file format in which they were created and are held by the Ministry,
rather than rasterised/image-only PDF files.

If you decide that any part of the OIA provides a ground for withholding
information when you respond to this request, please could you - as per
section 19(a) of the OIA - provide details of the reasons in support of
those grounds, including the public interest factors considered by the
Ministry under section 9(1).

In addition, in the event that the Ministry decides that there is reason
under the OIA to withhold some information in full, please provide me with
a list of all the documents it has determined fall within the scope of my
request.

Finally, when responding to these requests, please could you provide me
with a list of the search terms used by Ministry officials when searching
for information within the scope of the two requests detailed above.

Yours faithfully,

Andrew Ecclestone

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Andrew

 

Please find attached a response to your OIA request.

 

Regards

 

Antony

 

 

   

[1]Description: Description: Description: Antony Paltridge
http://justice.govt.nz/courts/shared/jus...
Team Leader (Media and
External Relations) |
Communication Services
DDI: +64 4 918 8980

[2]www.justice.govt.nz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Confidentiality notice:
This email may contain information that is confidential or legally
privileged. If you have received it by mistake, please:
(1) reply promptly to that effect, and remove this email and the reply
from your system;
(2) do not act on this email in any other way.
Thank you.

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2. http://www.justice.govt.nz/

hide quoted sections