Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier today released his latest Official Information Act (OIA) and Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) data[1].

In the six months from 1 July to 30 December 2020, the Ombudsman received 667 OIA complaints, a 17 per cent increase on the previous six months. The number of LGOIMA complaints received was 141, an eight per cent decrease.

"The number of complaints I receive under both Acts fluctuates, according to the time of the year and external events", Mr Boshier says.

"I remain concerned about the number of complaints that concern delays in making decisions on official information requests", Mr Boshier says.

"For the last six months of 2020, 18 per cent of LGOIMA and 28 per cent of OIA complaints concerned a delay".

"The purpose of OIA and LGOIMA is to progressively increase the availability of official information", Mr Boshier says. "I encourage agencies and local authorities to emphasise transparency".

About the data

The data released by the Ombudsman concerns both OIA and LGOIMA complaints received and completed from 1 July to 30 December 2020. It includes information on the number of complaints received by Minister or agency, the nature of the complaint and type of complainant (media, private individual, etc). For the complaints completed, the data also includes the outcome of the complaint.

The data does not enable a direct comparison among agencies, as complaints data on its own does not give the full picture. The number of complaints received by the Ombudsman may be a very small proportion of the total number of OIA or LGOIMA requests received by an agency.

See the Ombudsman’s complaints data: OIA and LGIOMA complaints received July - December 2020.

At the same time as the Ombudsman published complaints and outcomes data, Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission (formerly the State Services Commission) published its data on OIA requests received by agencies and their response times. This data can be viewed here.

For a graphical breakdown of the data, see Latest OIA, LGOIMA data released.

[1] This includes all city, district and regional councils, as well as council controlled organisations, community boards, domain boards, public reserves boards and licensing trusts among others. See Schedules 1 & 2 LGOIMA for more details.

[2] For the LGOIMA, this comprises companies, associations, and incorporated societies.

For the OIA, this comprises companies, associations, incorporated societies, political party research units, special interest groups, trade unions, researchers, Members of Parliament, and review agency (eg: HDC, IPCA).

[3] For the LGOIMA, this comprises decisions not made as soon as practicable, charge, manner or form of release, delay in releasing information, refusal - personal information about body corporate, Privacy Act request, extension, and other.

For the OIA, it comprises Privacy Act requests, charges, delay in releasing information, extension, decisions not made as soon as reasonably practicable, refusal - statement of reasons, refusal - personal information about body corporate, manner or form of release, condition, and other.

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