OIA statistics - Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission

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Pārongo Ōkawa Official information

Government agencies are committed to openness and transparency in the provision of public services to New Zealanders. The OIA gives New Zealanders the right to access information and is important for ensuring government is open and transparent.

This is why Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission publishes Official Information Act (OIA) statistics covering Crown entities and government departments subject to the OIA every six months. The Commission is working with the Office of the Ombudsman and government agencies to make more information publicly available and improve compliance with the OIA. The Commission expects to see performance levels maintained or improved, and encourages agencies to also progressively increase the amount of information proactively released.

The Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman have published information on different aspects of compliance with the OIA.

OIA statistics for the Public Service

Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission publishes OIA statistics covering government agencies that are subject to the Act every six months. Statistics for New Zealand Police and New Zealand Defence Force are shown separately, and are not included in the overall statistics summary.

The statistics cover:

the number of requests completed by agencies in the six month reporting period
compliance with legislative timeframes
the publication of OIA responses
OIA complaints referred by the Ombudsman to agencies, and those where a deficiency was identified
how many requests are extended, transferred or refused in full
the average time to respond.

By centralising the collection and publication of OIA statistics, the Commission aims to improve the consistency and accessibility of information on agencies’ compliance with the letter and spirit of the Act.

More detail of what is requested from agencies for the six-monthly collection of OIA statistics can be found in the guidance sent to agencies.

OIA Statistics - Planning for Jul-Dec 2022(PDF, 163 KB)

OIA Statistics FAQs Jul-Dec 2022(PDF, 105 KB)

Complaints data published by the Chief Ombudsman

The Office of the Ombudsman publishes information on complaints about agencies’ OIA responses.

The OIA statistics released by the Commission provide important context for the complaints data, as the number of complaints received does not on its own provide an accurate picture of compliance with the OIA.

Agencies with high levels of engagement with New Zealanders also tend to receive the largest numbers of OIA requests. While larger numbers of OIA requests may be associated with higher numbers of complaints to the Ombudsman, the number of complaints as a proportion of requests received may be in line with, or even lower than agencies with smaller numbers of requests.

The Chief Ombudsman’s report is available on the Office on the Ombudsman’s website.

Latest release

11 September 2024 OIA statistics to 30 June 2024

OIA Statistics Summary Jan - June(PDF, 506 KB)
OIA Statistics 1 January to 30 June 2024(XLSX, 172 KB)

Data going back to the initial 2015/16 collection period can be downloaded as a CSV file below. Please note the ﬁrst two OIA collections covered an annual period (July 2015 to June 2016 and July 2016 to June 2017). The data below shows a six month cut of the annual information for comparability purposes.

OIA Statistics All Data(XLSX, 214 KB)