A prisoner requested information from New Zealand Police. As the material was available on its website, Police refused the request on an administrative basis, namely that it was publicly available (s 18(d) of the Official Information Act (OIA)). However, being a prisoner, the requester could neither access the internet, nor therefore the information.
As the information was clearly publicly available, the Chief Ombudsman accepted that it was open to Police to refuse the request on this basis. However, the Chief Ombudsman noted that s 18(d) permits but does not require refusal on public availability grounds. In the particular circumstances of this case, the Chief Ombudsman’s opinion was that the decision to refuse the request solely on that basis was unreasonable in terms of s 30(1)(b) of the OIA.
This case note is published under the authority of the Ombudsmen Rules 1989. It sets out an Ombudsman’s view on the facts of a particular case. It should not be taken as establishing any legal precedent that would bind an Ombudsman in future.
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