A8.80 Charges for providing Official Information

Official Information Act 1982 s 52

1. The NZIS follows the Government guidelines set out in the Ministry of Justice guidelines dated 18 March 2002. The guidelines represent what are regarded as reasonable charges for the purposes of the Act.
2. Staff time is charged at NZ$38 per half hour or part thereof, after the first hour which is free. The rate applies to all staff dealing with requests, irrespective of seniority or grade. Staff time includes:
   1. searching indexes
   2. locating and extracting information (but not if the information is not where it should be)
   3. reading or reviewing information (but not deciding whether to release information)
   4. transcribing, including compiling excerpts or summaries
   5. supervising access to the information, including supervising the requestor if the information is being viewed
   6. collating and photocopy information.
3. Photocopies are provided at 20 cents per page after the first 20 pages which are free.
4. Other actual costs such as:
   • producing a document by computer or other such equipment, or
   • reproducing a film, video or audio recording, or
   • arranging for the applicant to hear or view an audio or visual recording, or
   • providing a copy of any map, plan or other document larger than A4 or foolscap size
   • posting large packages
   • courier services
   • retrieval of information off-site
   • producing or supplying commercially valuable information.
5. The charges include GST.
6. If repeated requests are made about a common subject over a period of up to 8 weeks, all but the first request should be combined for charging purposes.
7. If time and materials exceed by only a small amount the threshold for supplying the information without charge, visa and immigration officers must use their discretion to decide whether any charge should be made, and if so, how much.

A8.80.1 Deposits

1. A deposit may be required:
   1. if the charge is likely to be more than $76, or
   2. to provide some assurance of payment to avoid wasting resources.
2. A deposit may only be requested after a decision has been made to release the information.
3. The applicant must be notified of:
   1. amount of deposit required, and
   2. method of calculating the charge, and
   3. expected final amount to be paid.
4. Work on the request may be suspended until the deposit is received.
5. The unused part of any deposit should be refunded immediately to the applicant with a statement detailing how the rest was spent.

A8.80.5 Waiving or reducing charges

1. The NZIS may, at its discretion, modify or waive the requirement to pay any charge.
2. Before a decision on waiving or reducing charges is made, the circumstances of each individual request must be considered.

A8.80.10 Review of decisions on charges

Official Information Act 1982 s 28(1)(b)

1. The Ombudsman may investigate and review any decision on charging for an official information request (see A9).
2. Applicants must be informed of their right of appeal to the Ombudsman when they are notified of the charge.
3. Visa and immigration officers must record all costs involved, as well as the fact that an applicant liable for payment has been notified of how the charge was calculated.

A8.80.15 Members of Parliament or political parties

Requests from Members of Parliament may be exempt from charges for official information provided for their own use. This discretion may be extended to cover political party parliamentary research units when the request for official information has the endorsement of an MP. In exercising this discretion it is appropriate to consider whether remission of charges would be consistent with the need to provide more open access to official information for MPs in terms of the reasonable exercise of their democratic responsibilities. However if large or costly requests are received from this source, officers should clarify, and where possible, narrow the request. Accordingly, the amount of time and resources taken to provide the information requested should be taken into account as a reasonable charge may be appropriate. Assistance from Legal services should be sought if clarification is needed.

Effective 07/10/2002