Official Information Act Requests

The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) is designed to make government activities more open and transparent to the public.

It has two very important roles:

• to make official information more freely available to the public; and
• it protects official information consistent with the public interest.

OIA requests

People in New Zealand can request government information (official information) and can expect it to be made available unless there is a good reason to withhold it.

The Official Information Act 1982 (often referred to as the OIA) enables citizens, permanent residents, visitors to New Zealand, and body corporates registered or with a place of business in New Zealand, to make a request for official information held by government agencies.

The Act also sets out a number of reasons for which information may be withheld. These reasons include preservation of personal privacy and protection of information which has been received in confidence. However, even where there is good reason for withholding it, information will still be released if there are overriding considerations which mean it is in the public interest to release it.​

Please direct any Official Information Act (OIA) requests for Te Tai Tokerau Te Whatu Ora to hnzOIA@health.govt.nz

Click here for Release of Patient Information and Privacy Act guidelines.

For all Te Whatu Ora OIA responses that are proactively released from 1 January 2023 please visit Te Whatu Ora Publications site