By email
Shed 39,
2 Fryatt Quay
Pipit
ea, Wellington 6011
PO Box 1
1646
10 April 2019
Manners St
reet
Wellingt
on 6142
T 04 384 5708
File Ref: OIAP-7-9670
F 04 385 6960
www.gw.govt.nz
Hugh Davenport
[FYI request #9566 email]
Dear Mr Davenport
Request for information 2019-041
I refer to your request for information dated 12 February 2019, which was received by Greater
Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) on 12 February 2019. You have requested the following
information:
“
As per Clause 1.4.5 of Schedule 5 of the Partnering Contract (page 142 of
http://www.gw.govt.nz/assets/Transport/Bus-contracts/Schedules-2-15-for-publication.pdf), the bus
operators are required to have a staff training plan for each year.
I would like to request a copy of this training plan for all bus operators under the Metlink branding
for the years of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
As for whether this data is "held" by the agency, I refer to s 2(6) LGOIMA.
"Any information held by an independent contractor engaged by any local authority in his or her
capacity as an independent contractor is, for the purposes of this Act, deemed to be held by the local
authority.", paraphrased "Information which an independent contractor to an agency holds in that
capacity is deemed to be held by the agency"
I note that all the bus contractors are independent contractors engaged by GWRC on behalf of
Metlink and in their capacity of the independent contractors they hold the data of their staff training
plans.”
GWRC’s decision follows
The rollout of the GWRC Metlink bus service commenced in July 2018 and I have attached the
training plans for the 2018/2019 year for the following operators for your information. Following
consultation with operators several redactions have been made under the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act, 1987 (the Act), these are indicated in the table below.
As the GWRC Metlink service commenced in July 2018 we do not hold any training plans from
providers for the previous year (2017/2018 year), and as the training plans for 2018/2019 have not
OIA 2019-041 HUGH DAVENPORT RESPONSE LETTER
been updated for 2019/2020 this information does not exist. This part of your request is therefore
refused under section
17(e) of the Act.
Operator
Plan Title
Redactions
Mana Coach Services Staff Training and
N/A
Ltd
Development Plan
Uzabus
Ltd
Staff Training Plan - Section 7(2)(a) - to protect the privacy of
Kapiti
natural persons.
NZ Bus Ltd
Staff Training Plan
Section 7(2)(a) - to protect the privacy of
natural persons.
Section 7(2)(b)(ii) - to protect information
where the making of the information would be
likely to unreasonably to prejudice the
commercial position of the person who
supplied or who is the subject of the
information.
Tranzit Group Ltd
Tranzit Staff Training and Section 7(2)(a) - to protect the privacy of
Development Plan Unit 1, natural persons.
4, 7, 3. (example).
Section 7(2)(b)(ii) - to protect information
where the making of the information would be
likely to unreasonably to prejudice the
commercial position of the person who
supplied or who is the subject of the
information.
We have considered whether the public interest in the requested information outweighs GWRC’s
need to withhold certain aspects. As a result, we do not consider that the public interest outweighs
GWRC’s reason for withholding parts of the information under the grounds identified above.
On 12 and 13 March 2019 you emailed GWRC about your concerns as to why the timeframe under
the Act to respond to your request had been extended. We confirmed with you that the reason for the
extension was so that GWRC could consult so it can provide a proper response to your request as
explained in our letter to you and by email on 12 and 13 March 2019.
You replied:
OIA 2019-041 HUGH DAVENPORT RESPONSE LETTER
PAGE 2 OF 3
“
When you do get around to providing your response, could you please include a brief timeline of
how this request was handled, date/time/person involved etc. What consultations were necessary
that couldn't be done within the first 20 days, and when were these consultations done. Also when
did GWRC first realise that they needed an extension. If the date that GWRC realised they needed
an extension was before March 12th, then a bit of reasoning behind the delay of informing myself
and the public of the extension required. It would also be useful for reasoning behind the extra 20
days, i.e. how did you come about 20 days extension rather than 10 or 30?”
GWRC made the decision to extend your request on 11 March 2019 to allow further time to
complete a second round of consultation with bus operators. The decision was made to extend your
request by a further 20 days to allow for a reasonable time to complete the necessary consultation
and document processing and decision making on your request. I have withheld the names of staff
involved under section 7(2)(a) of the Act to protect the privacy of natural persons.
If you have any concerns with the decision(s) referred to in this letter, you have the right to request
an investigation and review by the Ombudsman under section 27(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Greg Pollock
General Manager, Public Transport
OIA 2019-041 HUGH DAVENPORT RESPONSE LETTER
PAGE 3 OF 3