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This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Official Information request 'OIA publication'.

 
 
 
 
22 November 2023 
 
 
Rex Davey 
Via email: [FYI request #24631 email] 
 
 
Tēnā koe Rex  
 
Request for information: OIA publication communications 
 
Thank you for your request dated 2 November 2023 under the Official Information Act 1982 
(OIA) for information relating to OIA publication communications. You requested: 
 
Please provide all internal communication relating to the publication of OIA responses 
on your website. The timeframe I would like covered is 1Jan 2022 to date. 
 
On 9 November 2023 Pharmac contacted you in accordance with section 18B of the Act to 
advise that your request as it is currently worded requires a search through a very large 
volume of documents and may be refused under section 18(f) of the OIA. You were advised 
that an initial search for documentation in scope of your request resulted in thousands of 
documents, each of which would need to be individually reviewed to determine whether it 
falls within scope of your request. You were also advised that if you are able to refine the 
scope of your request, Pharmac may be able to provide information you are interested in.  
 
Pharmac is aware that this email may have not been delivered. As such this refinement email 
was posted to the FYI website on 9 November 2023: https:/ fyi.org.nz/request/24631-oia-
publication#incoming-92908. 
 
On 15 November 2023 you provided a refined request for:  
 
“all internal communication relating to the publication of OIA responses on your 
website.“ 
 
“….generated this year and within the team and business group with the main 
responsibility for OIA management and publication of responses.” 
 
Please find attached the information identified within scope of your request.  
 
We have redacted a smal  amount of information from the documents as we consider this is 
necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons (section 9(2)(a)).  
 
As required under the OIA, we also considered whether, in the circumstances, the 
withholding of this information was outweighed by other considerations which render it 
desirable, in the public interest, to make this information available. In this case we did not 
consider that the public interest outweighed the reasons for withholding the information. 
 
 
2023-24-069; A1731130 

 
 
 
 
 
 
To make information more freely available, we publish selected OIA responses (excluding 
personal details) on our website. OIA responses are published here: 
https:/ pharmac.govt.nz/news-and-resources/official-information-act/official-information-act-
responses/?year=2023. 
 
Please note, final versions of all attachments and documents referenced in the 
correspondence released to you have been published on the Pharmac website at the link 
above.  
 
We trust that this information answers your queries. Please note, you have the right to make 
a complaint to the Ombudsman about our response to your OIA, under section 28(3) of the 
OIA. Details of how to make a complaint are on the Ombudsman’s website. 
 
 
Nāku noa, nā 
 
 
 
Oliver Whitehead 
Team Leader, Government Services
 
2023-24-069; A1731130 
  
2 


 
s 9(2)(a)
s 9(2)(a)
s 9(2)(a)
s 9(2)(a)
s 9(2)(a)
Official Information Act 1982
s 9(2)(a)
s 9(2)(a)
Released under the
s 9(2)(a)
Error! Unknown document property name.  
1 
Subject:    RE: OIAs for publishing
Sent:   
9/01/2023, 10:49:54 am
From:   
Grace Christison<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Melody Willis; Liz Barlow
 
All done 😊
 
Liz, when you’re back please check these for layout.
 
From: Melody Willis <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Monday, 9 January 2023 9:30 am
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>; Grace Christison <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: OIAs for publishing
 
Kia ora e hoa ma
 
Please find OIAs for publishing this month within the attached folder.
1982
 
Grace, if you are light on work/need something to do in Liz's absence, feel free to upload these 😉Act 
 
 
Melody Willis has sent you a link to "06 December" (fA324711) from Objective.
 
 
Open in Navigator           
Double click on the attachment
 
Information 
Open in Supported Application 
url:objective://id:[email address]:8643
 
Open in Your Browser    
https://objective.pharmac.govt.nz:8643/id:fA324711
Official 
 
the 
under 
Released 

Subject:    RE: Heads up re OIAs
Sent:   
30/03/2023, 12:17:10 pm
From:   
Allanah Andrews<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Liz Barlow; Melody Willis
 
Stoked to have you helping Liz 😊
 
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 12:13 PM
To: Melody Willis <s 9(2)(a)
>
Cc: Allanah Andrews <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: Heads up re OIAs
 
Cool. I’m just going through the December folder. There was a TAR in there but no letter to accompany it – I’ve sent the letter
through to Allanah. Not sure where I’ll get to today. But It’ll keep me busy haah
 
From: Melody Willis <
1982
s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 12:04 PM
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Act 
Cc: Allanah Andrews <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: Heads up re OIAs
 
Thanks Liz
 
I’ve made some updates to the ‘for publishing’ column in the OIA spreadsheet which should show up. Just updating some where I
believe it is unlikely that there is any benefit/public interest in publishing the response(s).
 
Information 
Note that some OIAs may have multiple response letters (e.g. where a response is extended but the extension letter contains
partial/some relevant information). This is where I would have the first response published, then publish the 2nd response with a
hyperlink back to the first response.
 
Official 
Ngā mihi, nā
 
 
the 
Melody Willis (she/her) | Government Services Advisor
___________________________________________________________________
Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac | PO Box 10 254 | Level 9, 40 Mercer Street, Wellington
DDI: +64 4 8300 635 | P: 0800 660 050 | M: s 9(2)(a)
 |www.pharmac.govt.nz
under 
 
[SEEMAIL]
 
 
PSA Delegate | Join the PSA today
Released 
 
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2023 11:53 AM
To: Allanah Andrews <s 9(2)(a)
>
Cc: Melody Willis <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: Heads up re OIAs
 
Hi
 
You’ll see me sending you through some requests to approve anonymised OIA letters. I am terrible with Objective so please let me
know if I’m doing the wrong thing.
 
Currently just working through the back log from last year. Then will crack onto this year. 😊
 
Subject:    Update for published OIAs
Sent:   
30/03/2023, 5:21:28 pm
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Melody Willis
 
Well…. I managed to publish one today. Haha – I’ll get back at it on my return from holiday.
2021-22-130 – published 30/3/23
Liz
1982
Act 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:    RE: OIA Publishing
Sent:   
18/05/2023, 10:23:42 am
From:   
Gendi McFadyen<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Liz Barlow
 
Hi Liz,
 
It was sent out on 2 November 2022.
 
Kind regards,
Gendi
 
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2023 10:22 AM
To: Gendi McFadyen <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: OIA Publishing
 
1982
Hi.
 
Act 
Just need to know what day this was sent out on.
 
Thanks
 
From: Gendi McFadyen <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2023 8:29 AM
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: OIA Publishing
Information 
 
Hi Liz,
 
Could you please publish this OIA response on the website? Melody is away and Allanah wants it to be published today but I’m not
too sure what the process is. I have deleted the personal information from the r
Official  esponse letter but I’m not sure if the document
with all the information is ready for publishing.
 
the 
Kind regards,
 
Gendi McFadyen| Government Services Advisor
Te Pātaka Whaioranga | Pharmac
under 
PO Box 10-254, Wellington 6140 | Level 9, 40 Mercer Street, Wellington 6011
P: 0800 660 050 | www.pharmac.govt.nz
 
Released 
Subject:    RE: OIAs for publishing - May (fA332301)
Sent:   
24/05/2023, 9:31:14 am
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Melody Willis; Gendi McFadyen
 
To get the actual link you'll need to click the special secure link below and then copy it from the address bar. I've asked help desk to
change the security settings so that Pharmac's website is deemed secure by our own email software.
Le Sigh
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Melody Willis <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2023 9:07 AM
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>; Gendi McFadyen <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: OIAs for publishing - May (fA332301)
 
Thanks Liz
1982
 
Gendi, the URL for the published OIA is https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?
url=https%3A%2F%2Fpharmac.govt.nz%2Fnews-and-resources%2Fofficial-information-act%2Fofficial-informa
Act  tion-act-
responses%2Faccess-to-meningococcal-b-vaccine-and-supply-of-shingles-
vaccine%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cliz.barlow%40pharmac.govt.nz%7C3401119818ce4530e89b08db5bd1c0c5%7C2a64c3b0239f425b
b657b2642c95b456%7C0%7C0%7C638204728656016116%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2lu
MzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Y1Fa0hkb1rDV346EJgC1euMXtfO44AhJ%2FdsqhMjoH2o%3
D&reserved=0
 
Ngā mihi, nā
Information 
Melody
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2023 2:50 PM
Official 
To: Melody Willis <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: OIAs for publishing - May (fA332301)
 
the 
May is done now. 😊
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Web Enquiry <[email address]>
under 
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2023 2:14 PM
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: OIAs for publishing - May (fA332301)
 
Kia ora Liz
 
Released 
Could we please have the OIA responses (3) in the attached folder published this week? At the least, we want OIA 2022-23-073
published so we can refer another OIA to that response. Could you please send us the URL when that one's live?
 
 
Ngā mihi, nā
 
 
Melody Willis (she/her) | Government Services Advisor
___________________________________________________________________
Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac | PO Box 10 254 | Level 9, 40 Mercer Street, Wellington
DDI: +64 4 8300 635 | P: 0800 660 050 | M: s 9(2)(a)
 |https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?
url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pharmac.govt.nz%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cliz.barlow%40pharmac.govt.nz%7C3401119818ce4530e89b08
db5bd1c0c5%7C2a64c3b0239f425bb657b2642c95b456%7C0%7C0%7C638204728656016116%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8ey
JWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ajMHtW1p37rKfBQYQN
CF0CoZD3s%2F2vvON1HWvlVMeqI%3D&reserved=0
Subject:   
2021-22-106 - OIA response document - TAR 421 - Daratumumab for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma,
with 1 prior line of treatment copy for publishing alias (zA283238)
Sent:   
6/06/2023, 3:21:50 pm
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Gendi McFadyen
Attachments:    zA283238.obr
 
Hi
 
I'm just loading some OIAs to the website and came across this attachment. Is it possible to make your software do text
recognition? I seem to get some of these files where the text can be selected.
 
Thanks.
 
Liz
 
 
1982
Liz Barlow has sent you a link to "2021-22-106 - OIA response document - TAR 421 - Daratumumab for relapsed or refractory
multiple myeloma, with 1 prior line of treatment copy for publishing alias" (zA283238) from Objective.
 
Act 
 
Open in Navigator           
Double click on the attachment
 
Open in Supported Application 
url:objective://id:[email address]:8643
 
Information 
Open in Your Browser  
Latest:   https://objective.pharmac.govt.nz:8643/id:A1581466/document/versions/latest
Published:           https://objective.pharmac.govt.nz:8643/id:A1581466/document/versions/published
 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:    RE: OIA Publishing
Sent:   
19/07/2023, 3:16:33 pm
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Gendi McFadyen
 
Boom – Done. 😊
https://pharmac.govt.nz/news-and-resources/official-information-act/official-information-act-responses/breakdown-of-dr-verralls-
fees-and-reimbursements
 
From: Gendi McFadyen <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Wednesday, 19 July 2023 1:21 pm
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: OIA Publishing
 
Hi Liz,
 
Could you please publish this OIA response on the website by COB today?
1982
 
Kind regards,
Act 
Gendi
 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:    RE: 01 July (fA335418)
Sent:   
28/07/2023, 1:23:29 pm
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Melody Willis
Cc:   
Katy Carlson; Allanah Andrews
 
Hi
 
I've published the TAR. I'd already loaded 2022-23-160
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Melody Willis <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Friday, 28 July 2023 9:29 am
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Cc: Katy Carlson <s 9(2)(a)
>; Allanah Andrews <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: 01 July (fA335418)
 
1982
Thanks Liz
 
I've restored and re-santisied the PDF so it is text searchable. Also have added the response letter for publishing f
Act 
or OIA 2022-23-
160.
 
 
Ngā mihi, nā
 
 
Melody Willis (she/her) | Government Services Advisor
Information 
___________________________________________________________________
Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac | PO Box 10 254 | Level 9, 40 Mercer Street, Wellington
DDI: +64 4 8300 635 | P: 0800 660 050 | M: s 9(2)(a)
 |www.pharmac.govt.nz
 
[SEEMAIL]
Official 
 
 
PSA Delegate | Join the PSA today
the 
 
 
 
 
under 
-----Original Message-----
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 6:46 PM
To: Melody Willis s 9(2)(a)
Cc: Katy Carlson <s 9(2)(a)
>; Allanah Andrews <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: 01 July (fA335418)
Released 
 
Hi
 
Loaded - except for the darutumumab TAR because I need it text recognised please!
 
Liz
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Melody Willis s 9(2)(a)
Sent: Tuesday, 25 July 2023 9:39 am
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Cc: Katy Carlson <s 9(2)(a)
>; Allanah Andrews <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: 01 July (fA335418)
 
Kia ora Liz
 
Please find OIA responses for publishing this month within the attached. Can you please let me know when these have been
uploaded?
 
 
Ngā mihi, nā
 
 
Melody Willis (she/her) | Government Services Advisor
___________________________________________________________________
Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac | PO Box 10 254 | Level 9, 40 Mercer Street, Wellington
DDI: +64 4 8300 635 | P: 0800 660 050 | M: s 9(2)(a)
 |www.pharmac.govt.nz
 
[SEEMAIL]
 
 
PSA Delegate | Join the PSA today
 
 
1982
 
 
Melody Willis has sent you a link to "01 July" (fA335418) from Objective.
Act 
 
 
Open in Navigator           
Double click on the attachment
 
Open in Supported Application 
url:objective://id:[email address]:8643
Information 
 
Open in Your Browser  
https://objective.pharmac.govt.nz:8643/id:fA335418
 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:    PDFs for uploading
Sent:   
15/09/2023, 2:58:11 pm
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Katy Carlson
Cc:   
Allanah Andrews
 
Kia ora
 
As it’s a nice Friday job – I thought I’d load some OIAs – wondering if you’ll be able to redo the PDFs that are already in the August
folder so that they’re text recognised?
 
Liz
1982
Act 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:    RE: Loaded all but the first 2 OIAs in the folder EOM
Sent:   
15/09/2023, 4:52:15 pm
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Katy Carlson
 
Awesome I’ll load that too.
 
 
From: Katy Carlson <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Friday, 15 September 2023 4:22 pm
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: Loaded all but the first 2 OIAs in the folder EOM
 
Hey! Just added the first one (001) with new pdf versions. Will do the second next.
 
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Sent: Friday, 15 September 2023 4:17 pm
1982
To: Katy Carlson <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: Loaded all but the first 2 OIAs in the folder EOM
Act 
 
 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:   
OIAs to Publish from month of September
Sent:   
29/09/2023, 2:53:32 pm
From:   
Katy Carlson<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Liz Barlow
Attachments:    03 September.obr
 
HOTTT N READDYYYYY
 
Katy Carlson has sent you a link to "03 September" (fA340145) from Objective.
 
 
Open in Objective ECM Navigator           
Double click on the attachment
 
Open in Supported Application 
url:objective://id:[email address]:8643
 
1982
Open in Your Browser  
https://objective.pharmac.govt.nz:8643/id:fA340145
 
Act 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
Subject:    RE: Retention policy on the website
Sent:   
18/10/2023, 10:18:04 am
From:   
Liz Barlow<s 9(2)(a)
>
To:   
Oliver Whitehead
 
Looks good. I would be change the last two clauses. “where information is no longer relevant, it may be removed from Pharmac’s
website.”
Just don’t want to limit it to “data”.
 
 
From: Oliver Whitehead <[email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, 18 October 2023 10:11 am
To: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
Subject: RE: Retention policy on the website
 
Hi Liz,
 
1982
I am pulling together the high-level (very early draft) proactive release policy and have included the following wording for the
update of information published section – let me know your thoughts
Act 
 
Regarding the other info that is proactively released I think the process should sit in a process document that compliments the
policy and I would like to develop an intranet page for all things information
 
Update of information published
If redactions have been made to documents which have been proactively released and it is determined at a later date that
more information can be made available, either internally or requested by the Office of the Ombudsman, Pharmac may
revise and update the proactively published information.
Information 
 
Where Official Information Act response have been published, after 3 or more years an automatic assessment of the
information’s relevance will be made, instances where data is no longer relevant, this information may be removed from
Pharmac’s website.
 
Official 
 
From: Liz Barlow <s 9(2)(a)
>
the 
Sent: Friday, 13 October 2023 3:54 pm
To: Oliver Whitehead <[email address]>
Subject: Retention policy on the website
 
under 
Hi
 
Following our talk yesterday – here’s the current sitch with Website content management. I have also done a proposal for the
published OIAs – what do you reckon? I had a quick look and we’ve got OIAs going back to 2019 – so if we institute this we might
have a bit of work ahead of us.
 
For the purposes of this policy there are 4 types of content on the site:
Released 
Out of scope
4. OIA responses (i.e. where we publish what was released under OIA – redacting details that would identify the requestor)
 
Out of scope
Out of scope
Proposed approach for OIA responses:
Add a 2 year review date to all OIAs using the website’s inbuilt review mechanism
After 2 years,
Responses to data requests are unpublished
TARs and other similar documents remain published – but linked from the TAR page, i.e. the substantive information
remains available but the mechanism for publishing it is no longer published.
Other OIAs are assessed at 2 years for their continuing public interest by…. ? OIA Team Lead and Principal Advisor Digital
Content?
If it’s determined that the OIA should remain published, it will be reviewed again after 1 year.
 
1982
Act 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 



 
 
 
 
 
1982
Act 
 
 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
Released 
 
Error! Unknown document property name.   
1 



 
1982
Act 
 
 
Information 
Official 
the 
under 
 
 
Released 
 
Error! Unknown document property name.   
2