Access to services by non-binary people - Follow up
Anita Easton made this Official Information request to Accident Compensation Corporation
The request was partially successful.
From: Anita Easton
Dear Accident Compensation Corporation,
Thank you for your response to me request of 20 November 2018 (https://fyi.org.nz/request/9083-access-t...)
I would like to ask four follow up questions. One of these is a restatement of a question which was not answered in my original request; I would ask that you take that into account when you prioritise your response to this request
1) Is it possible for ACC to record a gender other than female or male in your claims and client management system(s)?
2) What guidance do you currently provide to staff on how to record the gender of non-binary people? This restates a portion of my initial 3b which was not completely answered.
3) Do you have any advice, legal opinion or other documentation supporting the view that insisting a non-binary person choose either female or male before they can receive cover is is not "gender-based discriminations in relation to either personal injury cover or entitlements"
4) Can you please provide documentation of the active engagement being undertaken with the Ministry of Health and Statistics New Zealand on this matter. Any proposed timeline for resolution would be particularly welcome.
Yours faithfully,
Anita Easton
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Dear Anita Easton
Official Information Act Request
Thank you for your request of 18 December 2018 in which you asked ACC to
provide under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1. “Is it possible for ACC to record a gender other than female or male
in your claims and client management system(s)?
2. What guidance do you currently provide to staff on how to record the
gender of non-binary people? This restates a portion of my initial 3b
which was not completely answered.
3. Do you have any advice, legal opinion or other documentation
supporting the view that insisting a non-binary person choose either
female or male before they can receive cover is is not "gender-based
discriminations in relation to either personal injury cover or
entitlements"
4. Can you please provide documentation of the active engagement being
undertaken with the Ministry of Health and Statistics New Zealand on
this matter. Any proposed timeline for resolution would be
particularly welcome.”
ACC is working on your request and will be in touch with you as soon as
possible, and certainly by 7 February 2018. Please note, this complies
with the 20 working days timeframe allowed for under the Act, which
excludes the period 25 December to 15 January.
If you have any questions We will be happy to work with you to resolve
these. We can be contacted via return email.
Kind regards
Government Engagement & Support
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."
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora Anita
Please find attached our response to your official information request
dated 18 December 2018. If you have any questions about the response you
can contact us at this [1]address, for all other matters please use our
contact form at: [2]https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/ alternatively give us a
call on [3]0800 101 996.
If you are having trouble viewing the PDF, please ensure you have the
latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download this freeware please
click [4]here.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services, ACC
Tel. 0800 101 996
ACC / OIA Services 2385 / Justice Centre - Level 7
PO Box 242 / Wellington 6011 / New Zealand / [5]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email
unless it is really necessary. Thank you.
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."
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/
3. file:///tmp/tel:0800101996
4. https://get.adobe.com/nz/reader/
5. http://www.acc.co.nz/
From: Anita Easton
Tēnā koe Emma,
Thank you for your response dated 7 February 2019, I have found it really useful. This is not a separate request for information but instead a clarification of your response as it appears either you have less documentation than I anticipated, or your response was too narrowly scoped.
In response to my question 2 ("What guidance do you currently provide to staff on how to record the gender of non-binary people?") you provided a response which addressed the advice given to staff on how to ensure a binary gender is recorded but did not mention advice about non-binary people in particular. Can you please confirm that this means that no advice is provided to staff specifically about how to record the gender of non-binary people. If advice is given, could you please provide it as it was within the scope of my original question.
In response to my question 3 ('Do you have any advice, legal opinion or other documentation supporting the view that insisting a non-binary person choose either female or male before they can receive cover is is not "gender-based discriminations in relation to either personal injury cover or entitlements”') your response covered only advice which you consider is legally privileged, which I therefore assume was from the Corporation’s legal team or an external lawyer. Can you please confirm that this means that no advice or documentation about the issue exists from any other policy, communications, engagement or operational function. If anything does exist, could you please provide it as it was within the scope of my original question.
I should note that I expect that my original question 3 covers the issue of whether requiring non-binary people to provide an inaccurate binary gender before their claim can be processed is a barrier or disincentive, not just whether their gender is used in decision-making once their claim is accepted for processing. Thank you for confirming that gender is not used in treatment decision-making.
Ngā mihi,
Anita
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Thank you for contacting ACC; this is an automatic reply to confirm we
have received your email.
Depending on the nature of your request you may not receive an official
response for up to 20 working days. Be assured however, that we will
respond to your query as quickly as possible.
Our [1]website provides up to date news and information about our work.
You can also follow us on [2]Facebook and [3]Twitter. Further information
about how to contact us is also available [4]here.
Kind regards,
[5][email address]
Government Engagement & Support, ACC
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."
References
Visible links
1. https://www.acc.co.nz/
2. https://www.facebook.com/ACCNewZealand/
3. https://twitter.com/accnz?lang=en
4. https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/
5. mailto:[email address]
Anita Easton left an annotation ()
[Submitted to the Ombudsman]
Tēnā koe,
In the Corporation's response to my information request (https://fyi.org.nz/request/9273-access-t...) they have refused part of the request as they believe the documents are legally privileged.
I do not believe that in this case legal privilege outweighs public interest. This is an issue which is unlikely to be subject to litigation and affects the ability to access health services for a significant number of people.
Please don't hesitate to contact me to discuss further.
Ngā mihi
Anita
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora Anita
In order to provide you with the relevant information and useful context,
we would like to make some time to discuss your requests.
If you are based in Wellington we would be happy to meet with you in
person. Otherwise, we are able to make some time to call you and discuss
your request.
If you are happy to make some time to speak with us, could you please get
in touch with ACC’s Government Engagement & Support team. ACC’s contact
details can be found at www.acc.co.nz/contact.
Kind regards
OIA Services, ACC
Tel. 0800 101 996
ACC / OIA Services 2385 / Justice Centre - Level 7
PO Box 242 / Wellington 6011 / New Zealand / [1]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email
unless it is really necessary. Thank you.
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."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.acc.co.nz/
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora Anita
Please find attached a notification of time extension letter.
We will endeavour to have our work completed on your response as soon as
possible, and intend to provide you with a response before the due date.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services, ACC
Tel. 0800 101 996
ACC / OIA Services 2385 / Justice Centre - Level 7
PO Box 242 / Wellington 6011 / New Zealand / [1]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email
unless it is really necessary. Thank you.
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."
References
Visible links
1. http://www.acc.co.nz/
Anita Easton left an annotation ()
A quick update:
1) I have emailed ACC to arrange a time to meet to discuss my request.
2) The Office of the Ombudsman has been in touch to say they have informed the CE of ACC that they have commenced an investigation.
From: Government Services
Accident Compensation Corporation
Kia ora Anita
Please find attached our response to your official information request
dated 9 February 2019. If you have any questions about the response you
can contact us at this [1]address, for all other matters please use our
contact form at: [2]https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/ alternatively give us a
call on [3]0800 101 996.
If you are having trouble viewing the PDF, please ensure you have the
latest version of Adobe Acrobat Reader. To download this freeware please
click [4]here.
We note above that you have contacted us about arranging a meeting. We
have not received anything from you, please get in touch via our email
address in the letter attached.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services, ACC
Tel. 0800 101 996
ACC / OIA Services 2385 / Justice Centre - Level 7
PO Box 242 / Wellington 6011 / New Zealand / [5]www.acc.co.nz
ACC cares about the environment – please don’t print this email
unless it is really necessary. Thank you.
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."
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.acc.co.nz/contact/
3. file:///tmp/tel:0800101996
4. https://get.adobe.com/nz/reader/
5. http://www.acc.co.nz/
From: Anita Easton
Dear Government Services,
I have forwarded the email I had sent to your information team to the email address contained in your letter. It contains both my personal email and phone numbers for you to get in touch to arrange a time for me to view the memo and discuss my request.
Can you please confirm that you have received my forwarded email.
Yours sincerely,
Anita Easton
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Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
I'd suggest laying a complaint with the Ombudsman regarding the section 9(2)(h) refusal. As the guideline on this section clarifies: http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/syste...
"A document does not become the subject of legal professional privilege merely because it is signed by a legal adviser or includes a claim to being privileged."
It's clearly difficult for ACC to provide evidence to support their claim that it is necessary to withhold this information in order to maintain professional privilege, and that this is not outweighed by the public interest in releasing the information, without also releasing the information itself. A complaint to the Ombudsman would at least get a second opinion from an independent source.
Link to this