Ref. No. DOIA 2122-0933
12 November 2021
Edward Grove
[FYI request #17277 email]
Dear Edward Grove
Thank you for your email of 20 October 2021 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
(the Ministry), requesting following information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
I am wishing to obtain copies of all submissions (excluding submissions from individuals)
received by the Overview Group on The Weathertightness of Buildings and/or BIA prior to end of
2002 in relation to the causes of the "leaky building crisis". I am particularly interested in the
submissions lodged by Scion, the New Zealand Institute of Forestry, Branz, any forest industry
participants, and any research organisations including universities, with a particular focus on
any consideration of wood funtional quality issues as being of potential relevance to
weathertightness failures.
Note: I have previously made this same OIA request on 26 July 2021, and received no response
of any form from MBIE.
Given the age of the documents in question, Ministry staff would have to manually search through a
large volume of archived documents in boxes in order to identify the information in scope of your
request. The Ministry believes this search would take a staff member some weeks, and therefore, the
research and collation for this response would unreasonably interfere with the operations of the
Ministry.
On this basis, I am refusing your request under section 18(f) of the Act
, that the information requested
cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
You have noted that the Ministry did not respond to an earlier request made on 26 July 2021. I can see
you have made this on the FYI website, however the Ministry is unable find receipt of this request.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision, in
accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Jenni Tipler
Manager Building Performance and Engineering
Building System Performance