Official Information Act requests

The Health Quality & Safety Commission (the Commission) is part of the New Zealand public sector and therefore must meet obligations set out under the Official Information Act. This page explains how to make a request for information, and how we respond.

The Official Information Act 1982 is intended to help New Zealanders to participate effectively in policy decisions and law making. It is also intended to provide the public with greater transparency on government policy decisions.

Sources of information

Official information is information that is held by a government department or agency and is not already publicly available. Before submitting a request to the Commission, you might want to check our website to see if the information you are seeking is available. 

Who can make a request?

Anyone that is a New Zealand citizen, permanent resident or who is in New Zealand can ask the Commission about the information it holds.

How to make a request

A request can be made in any form (written, verbal) but the Act does require you to make your request with ‘due particularity’. This means you should be as clear as possible about what particular information you want.

To help us help you, requests should include your name, postal or email address and whether you have a preferred method of receiving a response ie, letter or email.

Being specific and providing as many details as you can about the information you seek will ensure your request can be processed as soon as possible. If any aspect of your request is unclear, we will ask you to clarify it.

Submitting a request

An OIA request can be made by any of the methods below:

• email: info@hqsc.govt.nz
• mail: Ministerial services and business support, Health Quality & Safety Commission, PO Box 25496, Wellington 6146
• online: submit an Official Information Act request on our website
• phone: +64 4 901 6040.

How long will it take to get a reply?

We will acknowledge your request and respond no later than 20 working days from the date we receive it. The time limit may be extended in some cases but if this happens, we will tell you and the reasons why an extension has been made.

Responses published on our website

The Commission publishes some of its OIA responses on its website, after the response is sent to the requester. The responses published are those that are considered to have a high level of public interest. We will not publish your name, address or contact details.

View published responses.

Withholding information

We may have to refuse or withhold information. There are provisions in the Act that allow for this and if this occurs, we will explain the reason. For more information please refer to sections 6, 9 and 18 of the Official Information Act 1982.

Complaints

If you are unhappy with our response, or need us to explain any aspects of it, please contact us in the first instance. If you’re still unhappy after talking to us, you have the right to seek a review of our response by writing to the Ombudsman. Note that you can make a complaint to an Ombudsman about how your request has been treated at any time. 

Read more about making a complaint.

Feedback

Our goal is to provide you with a response that meets your needs as much as possible and we welcome your feedback on this process. You can contact us by email at info@hqsc.govt.nz with the subject line ‘OIA feedback’ or by submitting your feedback via our online feedback form.