Good morning,

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your below Official Information Act
request dated 19 June 2019 for the below in relation to the population
density product:

 

1. All project documentation regarding this project. This should include;
business requirements, project plans, technical scoping and status
updates.

2. All communication with cellphone providers regarding this programme.
This should include meeting minutes, agreements and effectively anything
related to communication with cellphone providers in relation to this
project

 

I'm interested in two particular areas:

o Why this project has been undertaken. What has made it a priority
compared to other Stats NZ projects? I want the actual intended
outcome and similar rather than a press release hence the request for
project documentation
o The discussions that have been had with cellphone providers around
this project. In particular I'm interested in whether the work at
their end for anonymization is being funded externally or internally,
how this was decided, what facility is being allowed for opt out and
any questions or concerns that have been raised by cellphone providers

 

We received your request on 19 June 2019. We will endeavour to respond to
your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 17 July
2019, being 20 working days after the day your request was received. If we
are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an
extension of that timeframe.

 

Your request is being handled by the Office of the Government Statistician
and Chief Executive. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact
me using the details in the signature below. If any additional factors
come to light which are relevant to your request, please do not hesitate
to contact us so that these can be taken into account.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jarrod Williams
Senior Advisor – Office of the Government Statistician and Chief Executive
| Kaiwhakamaherehere Matua – Tari o te Kaitatau a te Kāwanatanga me te
Tumuaki
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa
DDI +64 4 931 4943 | +64 21 731 316 | [1]stats.govt.nz

Unleashing
the power of data to change lives

[2][IMG]  [3][IMG]  [4][IMG]

 

show quoted sections

Good afternoon,

 

I refer to your Official Information Act request dated 19 June 2019, as
outlined in the below emails.

 

The Act requires that we advise you of our decision on your request no
later than 20 working days after the day we received your request.
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to meet that time limit and we are
therefore writing to notify you of an extension of the time to make our
decision, to 14 August 2019.

 

This extension is necessary because, as you will appreciate, Stats NZ and
Data Ventures have formed a number of commercial relationships through
this work, and it is necessary to consult with them in order to provide a
proper response.

 

In the meantime, there are a number of things that are publicly available
that you may find useful:

o Information about Data Ventures and the work they do can be found here
– [1]https://dataventures.nz/
o The Privacy Impact Assessment for this work can be found on the Stats
NZ website, here –
[2]https://www.stats.govt.nz/privacy-impact...

 

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
[3]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

 

If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this
decision, please feel free to get in touch.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jarrod Williams
Senior Advisor – Office of the Government Statistician and Chief Executive
| Kaiwhakamaherehere Matua – Tari o te Kaitatau a te Kāwanatanga me te
Tumuaki
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa
DDI +64 4 931 4943 | +64 21 731 316 | [4]stats.govt.nz

Unleashing
the power of data to change lives

[5][IMG]  [6][IMG]  [7][IMG]

 

From: Jarrod Williams
Sent: Thursday, 20 June 2019 8:52 AM
To: [FOI #10563 email]
Subject: RE: Official Information request - Communication regarding
Population Density programme

 

Good morning,

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your below Official Information Act
request dated 19 June 2019 for the below in relation to the population
density product:

 

1. All project documentation regarding this project. This should include;
business requirements, project plans, technical scoping and status
updates.

2. All communication with cellphone providers regarding this programme.
This should include meeting minutes, agreements and effectively anything
related to communication with cellphone providers in relation to this
project

 

I'm interested in two particular areas:

o Why this project has been undertaken. What has made it a priority
compared to other Stats NZ projects? I want the actual intended
outcome and similar rather than a press release hence the request for
project documentation
o The discussions that have been had with cellphone providers around
this project. In particular I'm interested in whether the work at
their end for anonymization is being funded externally or internally,
how this was decided, what facility is being allowed for opt out and
any questions or concerns that have been raised by cellphone providers

 

We received your request on 19 June 2019. We will endeavour to respond to
your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 17 July
2019, being 20 working days after the day your request was received. If we
are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an
extension of that timeframe.

 

Your request is being handled by the Office of the Government Statistician
and Chief Executive. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact
me using the details in the signature below. If any additional factors
come to light which are relevant to your request, please do not hesitate
to contact us so that these can be taken into account.

 

Kind regards,

 

Jarrod Williams
Senior Advisor – Office of the Government Statistician and Chief Executive
| Kaiwhakamaherehere Matua – Tari o te Kaitatau a te Kāwanatanga me te
Tumuaki
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa
DDI +64 4 931 4943 | +64 21 731 316 | [8]stats.govt.nz

Unleashing
the power of data to change lives

[9][IMG]  [10][IMG]  [11][IMG]

 

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Millar
 
I am writing in relation to your Official Information Act request dated 19
June 2019, as outlined in the email below.
 
The decision to extend the time needed to make our decision on your
request, was made on the obvious need to allow an adequate period of
consultation. 
 
In addition to extending the timeframe to make a decision on your request,
and following assessment, Stats NZ has concerns that responding to your
request is likely to involve substantial research collation and research.
The reasons for this are:

* There are 911 emails potentially in scope of your request for “all
communication with cell phone providers regarding this programme”.
These emails would each need to be reviewed to determine whether they
are actually in scope.
* The range of documents requested is wide and varied, potentially
capturing all documents related to the project (this may not have been
you intent when submitting this request).
* There is 20 months’ worth of documentation in scope of your request
for “all project documentation”

 
Stats NZ has considered whether imposing a charge to enable to response to
your request as it is currently worded.  However we do not believe that
this is a feasible option at this time. The only staff able to undertake
the collation of information requested, would be Data Ventures staff and
this would significantly impact on their work load.
 
Before Stats NZ makes a final decision whether to decline your request
under section 18(f) of the Act, we would like to invite you to refine the
scope of the information you are seeking.  For example, you may wish to
limit you request to only:
 

 1. Planning and strategy documents, and status updates.
 2. A list of meetings, including time and date, and meeting subject.

 
We believe such a refinement, concentrating on key documents/events would
be feasible, and provide you with good insight to the work of Data
Ventures. That said, I think that most of the answers to your substantive
question “Why this project has been undertaken. What has made it a
priority compared to other Stats NZ projects? I want the actual intended
outcome and similar rather than a press release hence the request for
project documentation” may be best answered in this doc: “why does data
ventures exist” includes an outline of the outputs expected from the
programme
[1]https://www.data.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/...
 
If you are able to refine your request, please respond to me by 1 August. 
If we have not heard from you by that time, Stats NZ will proceed to make
a decision on your request as currently worded. 
 
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or if you require any
further assistance, please contact me using my contact details below.
 
Regards
 
 
Matthew Bloomer
Manager – Office of the Government Statistician and Chief Executive
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa
M +64 21 822 438 | [2]stats.govt.nz
In office Tuesday-Friday.
Unleashing
the power of data to change lives
[3][IMG]   [4][IMG]   [5][IMG]
 
 
 
 

show quoted sections

Good afternoon,

 

Please see attached the response to your Official Information Act request.

 

Kind regards,

 

Grace Spraggs 

 

Grace Spraggs (pronouns: she/her/hers)
Senior Advisor – Office of the Government Statistician and Chief Executive
| Kaitohutohu Matua – Tari O Te Kaitatauranga Matua Me Te Pouârahi Matua
Stats NZ | Tatauranga Aotearoa
DDI: +64 931 4071 | [1]stats.govt.nz

Unleashing
the power of data to change lives

[2]cid:image001.png@01D5326C.8799AD70 
[3]cid:image002.png@01D5326C.8799AD70  [4]cid:image003.png@01D5326C.8799AD70

 

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