19 January 2024
Anon
[FYI request #24454 email]
[email address]
Kia ora
Your Official Information Act request, reference: GOV-029592
Thank you for the below emails of 14 December 2023, asking for information under the Official Information
Act 1982 (the Act). We have numbered the paragraphs in your emails for ease of reference, and will
respond to each of them in turn.
Email 1
1. Please provide me with the true and accurate communications from the ICRA and FairWay where they
state they do not hold any information (policies, processes, guidelines, rules, instructions, tutorials, or
any other information) pertaining to their legal obligations under Part 5 of the Act, and in particular
section 140, 141 and 145 of the Act, which details how reviews are to be held and decision made.
2. You have referred to GOV-029419; however, I cannot find your response GOV-029419. it is not on the
ACC website, and a search of FYI.org.nz does not reveal a response with that number. Please provide
me with more specific information as to where I can find GOV-029419 (e.g., web address).
3. The Review Specialist Induction Guide (GOV-028422) states the claimant may call witnesses, and cross-
examine the witness (p 70). However, there is information as to how a claimant goes about summoning
a witness so that the claimant may cross-examine the witness during the review. Please provide me
with that information - held by ACC, the ICRA and FairWay. If no documentation exists, then I request
an honest answer to my question (from your legal team, the ICRA and FairWay), in accodance with
right 1 of the Code, as to how a claimant is to call witnesses (e.g., decision makers at ACC, External
Clinical Advisers, etc.) and information on how the claimant may cross-examination of those witnesses
during the review process.
Email 1 response
Paragraph 1
We understand that this question is seeking communication between ACC and Fairway and ICRA in
connection with your requests of 16 October 2023 and 24 November 2023 (OIA Ref: GOV-028422 and GOV-
029177, respectively).
The communication in these cases is our consultation with those parties for the purposes of making a
decision on your requests. Our decision is to withhold such information in full under free and frank grounds
(section 9(2)(g)(i)) of the Act. We consider the need to withhold this information is not outweighed by the
public interest in release.
We note that our decision is consistent with the general position outlined by the Ombudsman, which you
can view
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources/request-comments-generated-during-oia-decision-
making-process.
Paragraph 2
Our response to GOV-029419 is our email dated 12 December 2023 here:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/25061-
witness-summons-for-review-hearings#outgoing-41380.
GOV-029592 Page 1 of 3
Paragraph 3
As noted, there is no right to summon a witness for a review hearing. However, both ICRA and Fairway
allow parties to a dispute to bring a witness or expert. We have provided you the information we hold on
this matter, as well as on the subject of cross examination, in our 14 November 2023 response (GOV-
028422).
In addition to this, we note that there is information available to the public on preparing for a review on
both Fairway and ICRA’s websites, which notes that parties need to let the review services know of anyone
who will be attending the hearing. This is provided at the following links:
https://icra.co.nz/process-options/acc-review-and-adr/
https://www.fairwayresolution.com/help-for-you/acc/acc-reviews/getting-ready
Email 2
4. Your response appears to be inconsistent with the ACC response in GOV-029177, GOV-028422 and
GOV-027824. In GOV-027824, you attached the Responding to a witness summons Policy (p 47). At
section 4 of this policy, it states: "You can get a copy of the Dealing with a Witness Summons leaflet
from your team manager (TM) or branch manager (BM). TMs and BMs can contact the Manager
Litigation in the General Counsel team for further information." Clearly your statement "There are no
circumstances where a witness is served with a summons to attend an ACC review hearing" was wrong,
as it is inconsistent with both the Review Specialist Induction Guide and Responding to a witness
summons Policy.
5. I request all documents, rules, policies, guides, advice or any other information, pertaining to ensuring
the claimant's right to call (summon) and cross-examine ACC witnesses (i.e., claims assessors, review
specialists, resolution specialists, and external clinical advisers). If the information is held in the minds
of persons at ACC (e.g., Manager Litigation in the General Counsel team), then I request that
information to be provided in writing.
6. I request honest answer to my questions, from your Manager Litigation in the General Counsel team,
the ICRA and FairWay, pursuant to rights 1 & 8 of the Code, which are as follows:
(1) What steps must a claimant take (including forms filled in) in order to exercise their legal right to
call or summon an ACC witnesses? Please attache the form or details of the information that must be
included as well as the email address and physical to which the forms must be sent (e.g.
[email address]).
(2) What steps must a claimant take (including forms filled in) in order to exercise their legal right to
cross-examine ACC witnesses?
To be clear, when I say an ACC witness, I am referring to the specific ACC employees who were decision
makers, or to the persons contracted to ACC (e.g., external clinical advisers) who provided reports
which informed ACC's decisions.
Email 2 response
Paragraph 4
The ‘Responding to a witness summons Policy’ states at the top that this will usually happen in criminal
prosecutions. This process does not relate to review hearings.
Paragraphs 5 and 6
Please refer to our response to Email 1, Paragraph 3 above.
GOV-029592 Page 2 of 3
If you have any questions about this response, please get in touch
You can email me at
[email address]. If you are not happy with this response, you can also contact the Ombudsman via
[email address] or by phoning 0800 802 602. Information about how to make a complaint
is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Ngā mihi
Jason Hope
Acting Manager Official Information Act Services
Government Engagement
GOV-029592 Page 3 of 3
Document Outline
