Q-399 , 45th Parliament, 1st session May 26, 2025, to present

With regard to access to information and privacy coordinators and the concerns raised by the Information Commissioner that government departments are wrongly withholding records, including statistics, on the grounds that they are exempt from disclosure because they count as advice to ministers: (a) what is each government institution doing, if anything, to ensure that they are not abusing this exemption when processing requests; (b) since 2016, has the government disciplined any institution's access to information and privacy coordinators or employees for abusing this exemption or otherwise wrongfully withholding information, and, if so, what are the details, including the dates and incident summaries, of each instance; and (c) broken down by each institution governed by the Access to Information Act and the Privacy Act, will the institutions abide by the Information Commissioner's recommendations and not abuse the advice to ministers exemption, beginning immediately, and, if not, why not?