21 January 2022
Ashleigh Fechney
[FYI request #17839 email] Tēnā koe Ashleigh
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-015790
Thank you for your email of 5 December 2021, asking for the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
I make this urgent request to assist the people in understanding what a "designated premises" is
for the purposes of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Protections Framework) Order 2021.
In accordance with the Protections Framework, a person seeking goods or services must not be
refused access to the premises of health services that are partly or wholly funded by ACC.
Please urgently supply the following information under the Official Information Act 1982:
- All premises that are partly or wholly funded by the ACC.
I understand that a decision on a request for information under the Official Information Act 1982
should be made within 20 working days of receiving that request.
However, in the circumstances, I request that this request be treated as urgent, in accordance
with section 12 of the Official Information Act 1983:
- The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Protection Framework) Order 2021 came into
force at 11.59pm on 2 December 2021.
- Legal representatives are required to provide advice on the effect of the Protection
Framework. This is imperative to the right to justice. The people deserve to know what
premises they will not be refused access from.
Our response
We have interpreted this request to be asking for a list of the physical addresses of all premises that
provide health services that are partly or wholly funded by ACC.
All registered and licensed providers in New Zealand can get funding from ACC for providing treatment
to clients with accepted ACC claims.
A complete list of providers is not held in one database at ACC. Providing this information would
therefore require substantial manual collation and research, and we could not be certain that all
treatment providers had been included. Therefore, we are refusing to provide this information. This
decision has been made under section 18(f) of the Act.
In making this decision, we have considered extending our response timeframe for your request and/or
charging (under the Act). However, we have not offered either of these options as we have determined
that the resources required to extract the information would have a significant impact on the everyday
functions of the team(s) involved.
GOV-015790
Designated premises
The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Protection Framework) Order 2021 (clauses 10 and 31) states
that a designated premise cannot deny a person entry based on their vaccination status. Under this
order a designated premise applies to premises of health services.
Under the new Framework, in-person services must be delivered according to Ministry of Health
guidance and providers are expected to follow relevant public health guidelines for each stage.
Further information can be found on the ACC website here:
https://www.acc.co.nz/covid-19/providers. How to get in contact
If you have any questions, you can email me at
[email address]. If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800
802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sasha Wood
Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement & Support
Accident Compensation Corporation
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