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).
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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.
