Plans for fee and charge rises

Maria-Jane Brodie made this Official Information request to Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand

The request was refused by Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand.

From: Maria-Jane Brodie

Dear Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand,

I note on your website that a new fee structure was put in place last year, to be phased in over the next three years, after the October 2010 review. I am requesting:

a) A table of the fees and charges as at October 2010, and all intermediary fees and charges and the dates they will take effect from, and what the fees and charges will be after the phase in process is complete; and

b) A breakdown of the components of each of the different fees and charges, and how much of each fee relates to each component; and

c) Any and all documentation relating to this review and fee increases. This may include but is not limited to meeting minutes, change proposals, and implementation documentation.

I would prefer to receive this information in an electronic format.

As per section 12 of the Official Information Act, I am a New Zealand citizen and currently residing in New Zealand.

Yours faithfully,

Maria-Jane Brodie

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From: OIA
Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand


Attachment Brodie OIA response.pdf
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Dear Ms Brodie

Please find attached our response to your below request for information.

Kind regards

Jo Beckwith
Official Information and Privacy Officer
P +64 (0)4 560 9527 | F +64 (0)4 569 2024 | E [email address]
Civil Aviation Authority, Level 15, Asteron Centre, 55 Featherston Street, Wellington 6011
Civil Aviation Authority, PO Box 3555, Wellington, New Zealand 6140

The content of this email may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient please erase this message and contact the author.

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Luke C left an annotation ()

I refer to the paragraph sequence in the reply from CAA.

(b) The fact that something is 15 GB in size and is therefore substantial and complex, is not in itself a reason to rely on section 18(f) (that the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research). While the CAA says it would require "substantial" CAA resources to extract the information, they provide no estimate of time. Furthermore, it is not clear that "collation" or "research" are the tasks that are implemented here. (However I could be wrong).

However, it is helpful that they have taken the initiative to explain the methodology for calculating the fees. This is a positive action by CAA to help the requester.

Before a request is refused under 18(f), the organisation needed to have considered whether consulting with you would have resulted in them not relying on the 18(f) administrative withholding reason. There is no evidence that they carried out that consideration.

(c) The first action that the organisation ought to have taken in respect of this part of your request was for it to have exercised its duty of assistance under para. 13(b), by contacting you to assist you in refining that part (c) of your request so that your request could be stated with due particularity.

In relying upon 18(f), they could also, in the same breath, exercised their obligation under 18B to consult with you before relying on para. 18(f) to refuse your request.

Furthermore, they also needed to consider making a charge under 18A, before relying on para. 18(f). (I would anticipate a high charge for them looking through myriad sources.)

The fact that your request is broad, does not necessarily result in it lacking due particularity (as required of requesters in ss. 12(2)).

Admittedly, making such broad requests is often not helpful to an organisation, as the ambit is so wide the task of trying to collate information held in various sources is overwhelming. Information these days, is easily created due to the ease with which it is generated by computers. It is better for the requester to word such requests in a way that focuses on what it is they want to know, rather than emphasis document types (minutes, etc). If you must ask for "all documentation" then some options are:

1. ask for a list of substantive (major) documents on the subject

2. contact the orgaisation and ask them to explain what other information they hold (in addition to what is on their website, which is the first place you should look).

I hope the above is helpful guidance to organisations and requesters.

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