26 October 2021
C140421
Kurt Lorenzen
[FYI request #16338 email]
Tēnā koe Kurt
Thank you for your request of 7 August 2021 to the Ministry of Health (MoH),
requesting information about funding for Mental Health. Your request has been
considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA).
As you are aware, MoH partially transferred your request to Corrections on 30
August 2021 under section 14 of the OIA.
You requested:
Please provide all relevant information around the 1.9 billion dollars
earmarked for Mental Health NZ. Including, money spent on paid consultants
On 24 September 2021, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet published
a Mid-term Review of the 2019 Mental Health Package. This review outlines
Corrections’ initiatives attributed to the funding. The information requested, as it
relates to Corrections, can be found on pages 21-23 and 34 of the review. You can
find the revie
w here. The funding is directed towards operational services which is a
mix of contracted and employed services. No money has been spent on consultants.
As your request is currently very broad and has no specific timeframe, a large
amount of information would fall within scope. This could include any documents,
reports, e-mails or memos relating to the funding. These would need to be collated
and manually reviewed.
Therefore, your request is refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, as the information
requested cannot be made available without substantial collation. Under section
18A(1) of the OIA, we have also considered whether fixing a charge or extending the
time limit would allow us to respond, however, we do not believe it to be a good use
of our publicly funded resources.
As per section 18B of the OIA, we have considered whether consulting you would
assist to make the request in a form that would remove the reason for the refusal.
However, we do not consider that the request could be refined in this instance.
NATIONAL OFFICE, WELLINGTON
Mayfair House, 44 – 52 The Terrace, Wellington, 6011, Private Box 1206, Wellington 6140,
Phone +64 4 460 3000
www.corrections.govt.nz
2
I trust the information provided is of assistance. Should you have any concerns with
this response, I would encourage you to raise them with Corrections. Alternatively,
you are advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the
Ombudsman. Contact details are: Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152,
Wellington 6143.
Ngā mihi
Robert Jones
Manager Ministerial Services
People and Capability
