The Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has published his half-yearly data on Official Information Act (OIA) and Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) complaints.

The data covers the number of complaints received under each Act from 1 July to 31 December 2024, as well as the number of complaints completed by the Ombudsman during this period.

The number of complaints about the way government agencies handle OIA requests continues to trend upwards. In the most recent six-month period, the Ombudsman received 1,029 complaints, a rise from 946 in the previous half year.

The top three types of OIA complaints related to refusals in full (315, up from 272), delays in making a decision (208, up from 189), and partial refusals (198, up from 186). The Ombudsman also received a number of complaints about incomplete or inadequate responses (94, down from 100) and extensions (74, the same).

Of the total received, 752 were from individuals (up from 695), 131 from media (up from 99), 33 from political party research units (down from 81), and the remaining 113 were from other sources.

There were 215 complaints made under the LGOIMA, down on the last six-monthly period when 250 complaints were received.

Of the 215 LGOIMA complaints, 192 were from individuals (up from 186), 13 from the media (down from 17), and nine from companies or ratepayer and other groups (down from 47).

The top four types of LGOIMA complaints were refusals in full (66), refusals in part (54), inadequate or incomplete responses (36), and delays in making decisions (34).

Complaints data (1 July - 31 December 2024)

Complaints received

Complaint type Individual Media Other [1] Total received LGOIMA 192 13 10 215 OIA 752 131 146 1,029

Reasons for complaints

Complaint type Delay in decision Refusal in full Refusal in part Incomplete/ inadequate response Extension Other [2] LGOIMA 34 66 54 36 8 17 OIA 208 315 198 94 74 140

Complaints completed

Complaint type Individual Media Other Total completed LGOIMA 175 31 12 218 OIA 710 130 140 980

About the data

The data released by the Ombudsman concerns both OIA and LGOIMA complaints received and completed from 1 July to 31 December 2024. 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 half year complaints data

See the Ombudsman’s annual reports for analysis of yearly complaints data

Read frequently asked questions about official information complaint data publications

Find official information guides published by the Ombudsman

Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission publishes its own data on OIA requests received by agencies and their response times on the same day as the Ombudsman publishes complaints and outcomes data.

Go to Te Kawa Mataaho's OIA data

Footnotes

• 1. LGOIMA or OIA complaints received may also be from: political party research units; trade unions; special interest groups, companies, associations, incorporated societies, Members of Parliament, etc. These are categorised as ‘Other’ in this table. See this half year data set for more detail.
• 2. The ‘Other’ category may include complaints about decisions to make information available subject to a charge; the manner or form in which information was released; alleged delay in releasing information; extensions of the time limit to making decisions on requests; refusal - statement of reasons; refusal - internal rules and guidelines; refusal - personal information about body corporate. See this half year data set for more detail.

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