Requests for Official Information

Ordinary requests for official information and inspections of Council property records are governed by LGOIMA. Enquiries or requests for Official Information should be made in writing to:

The Director: Policy and Democracy

Papakura District Council

Private Bag 7

Papakura

Official Information Requests

Requests for Personal Information

Prohibition of Information

Official Information Requests

1. People may request any specified official information from a local authority (section 10 LGOIMA):

   1. 'Official information' is defined broadly to include any 'information' held by local authority. 

   2. Any information held by an officer, employee or member in such a capacity is deemed to be held by the local authority itself for the purposes of official information request.

2. There are a number of specific, but very limited, exceptions such as:

   1. correspondence with the Ombudsman or Privacy Commissioner about disclosure issues, and,

   2.  in certain circumstances, information held by an officer, employee, or member in connection with membership of another body. 

3. The Council is entitled to charge for the supply of official information:

   1. the charge must be reasonable taking into account the labour and materials involved in making the information available

   2.  the council may require the charge be paid in advance. (See section 13(2)-(4) LGOIMA.)

4. For requests for documents (including electronic or recorded material):

   1. there are a range of possible ways to disclose the documents, eg inspection, copying, viewing, transcripts, excerpt, oral or written summary

   2. the Council must make it available in the way preferred by the requester unless there doing so would:
      - impair efficient information
      - breach any legal duty in respect of the document
      - prejudice the interests protected by sections 6 or 7 of LGOIMA

   3. the Council may delete information from documents where only part of the information needs to be withheld. (See sections 15 and 16 LGOIMA.)

5. There are a range of ‘administrative reasons’ for which the request can be refused (section 17).  (Reasons summarised in the attached table).

   1. If any request is refused (in part or whole, or provided in a different way to requested) the Council must give:

• the reasons for the refusal

• (if requested) the grounds in support of the refusal

• information about the requester’s ability complain to the Ombudsman to review the refusal. (See section 18 LGOIMA.)

Requests for Personal Information

In addition to general official information requests under LGOIMA, people are entitled to obtain personal information about themselves. The procedure for processing these requests and the governing legislation depends on the type of person requesting the information:

1. Requests by individuals (natural persons) are treated as requests to access personal information under the Privacy Act 1993.

2. Requests by corporate or other artificial entities for information about themselves are treated as a request for official information under section 23.

3. In addition, under section 22 of LGOIMA both natural persons and corporate entity who are the subject of any Council decision or recommendation (in their personal capacity) are entitled (on request) to be given a written statement of:

• the findings of material fact;

• reference to the information on which the findings were based;

• the reasons for the decision or recommendations.

Prohibition of Information

There are a number of specific provisions which prohibit a local authority from disclosing certain information. For example:

1. Section 41(3) of the Rating Valuations Act 1998 prohibits the disclosure of the name or postal address of any ratepayer on the district valuation role.

2. Similarly, under section 38 of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002, the entitlement to inspect 'rates records' is restricted to a number of people, effectively prohibiting disclosure to other people.

3. Section 112 of the Domestic Violence Act 1995 prohibits the disclosure of information from any 'public register' if a person obtains a non-publication direction.

4. See building records exception above.

5. Section 42 of the Resource Management Act allows the Council to order the protection of sensitive information if it is necessary to:

• to avoid serious offence to tikanga Maori or to avoid the disclosure of waahi tapu, or

• to avoid the disclosure of a trade secret or unreasonably prejudicing a person’s commercial position (in either case, subject to any countervailing public interest). In such cases, the information must not be disclosed.

For further information, contact our Customer Service Centre or telephone 09 295 1300 Monday to Friday between the hours of 8:00 am and 4:30pm.