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This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Official Information request 'Internal Comms on refused request DOIA 2324-0822'.


 
 
 
30 January 2024  
Ref: DOIA 2324-1305 
Stephen Prendergast 
[FYI request #25156 email] 
 
Tēnā koe Stephen Prendergast 
 
Thank you for your email of 13 December 2023 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment 
(MBIE) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982, the fol owing information: 
On 12 December you advised you were refusing the request DOIA 2324-0822.This request is for all 
of the internal comms on that decision. 
Please find enclosed the following information that is within scope of your request:  
•  RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822; 
•  RE: Review: refusal letter DOIA 2324-0822 Stephen Prendergast; and 
•  Recal  of conversions regarding decision on DOIA 2324-0822.  
As previously explained, MBIE identified 28 Official Information Act (OIA) requests that were in scope of 
your DOIA 2324-0822 request. The search results for that request yielded a total number 1,256 emails, 
which is an average of 44 emails per OIA request. MBIE calculates that it takes five minutes to process 
each email, therefore this would calculate to 104 hours. This time calculation does not take into account 
for any attachments included in these emails. 
Retrieving the material, reviewing the material, assessing what is relevant to the specific request, then 
compiling the in-scope information al  takes time. Once the material has been col ated, we then 
commence an assessment of the material to identify if there is any information that needs to be withheld. 
Consultations with subject matter experts and relevant third parties (including private groups as well as 
other government agencies) assist us with this assessment. Noting the amount of time that would be 
required to extract, col ate and assess each of these emails, the request was considered as substantial. 
Therefore, under our normal process for al  OIA requests, MBIE made a decision to decline your DOIA 
2324-0822 request under section 18(f) of the OIA, as the information requested could not be made 
available without substantial collation or research.  
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request or this response, or if you require any further assistance, 
please contact [email address]. 
 
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information 
about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 
602. 
Nāku noa, nā 
 
 
Tane Dewes 
Manager Operations Support and Improvement 
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 

From:
Records Services
To:
Marianna James; Records Services
Cc:
David Gemmell
Subject:
RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
Date:
Friday, 8 December 2023 11:54:16 am
Attachments:
image001.png
image002.png
Kia ora Marianna,
I have saved the exports for all the searches in the folder below.
Email search results 
https://mako.wd.govt nz/otcs/llisapi.dll/open/149015127
Four of the searches were easy to move into MAKO. They are shown below.
OIA requests on RAL AND concession - Marianna AND @doc.pst 3 
https://mako.wd.govt nz/otcs/llisapi.dll/link/149099326
Search result 91 emails
OIA requests on RAL AND concession OR license - Marianna AND @doc.pst 2 
https://mako.wd.govt nz/otcs/llisapi.dll/link/149097973
Search result 71 emails
OIA requests on RAL liquidation AND concession OR license - NOT media.pst 
https://mako.wd.govt nz/otcs/llisapi.dll/link/148505212
Search result 91 emails
OIA requests on RAL OR ruapehu AND participant [email address] 
https://mako.wd.govt nz/otcs/llisapi.dll/link/149096245
Search result 20 emails
The fifth search was the largest at 3024 emails and this extra size presented added complication of not being able
to save the resulting .pst file into MAKO.
To resolve this issue I created a new folder for this search, linked below.
OIA requests on RAL AND concession OR license - NOT media 
https://mako.wd.govt.nz/otcs/llisapi.dll/open/149102495
Even once the duplicates had been removed from this search the count was still 1256 emails. The size of a .pst file
is a mix of volume of the results as well as the make up of the emails found. Any emails that have attachments will
make the .pst file larger. The more attachments the larger the .pst file.
To resolve this I re ran the export to split the results into a .pst file for each of the 506 mailboxes results had been
identified in. The advantage of this is that none of the .pst files are too large. It also gave me a chance to delete the
mailboxes that had no content. This happens when duplicates are removed and this was the only the content of
the identified mailbox. In the end there were 121 mailboxes that had content.
I am sorry it has taken so long to get to this point, but the popularity of the terms which lead to so many emails
being found added to the system complications that larger searches present.
Thanks
David Gemmell
SENIOR ADVISOR INFORMATION
Records and Library |Data Strategy and Knowledge | Digital, Data and Insights Group (DDI)
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment


 
Telephone: s 9(2)(a)
 
Level 4, 110 Featherston Street, Wellington, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
 
Find out how Information and Data can help your business by visiting the Information management and data, LibraryOnline and
Legal resources pages on Te Taura The Link
 
 
 
 
From: Marianna James <[email address]> 
Sent: Monday, 27 November 2023 4:11 PM
To: Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: David Gemmell <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
 
Hi David
 
 
Hope you’re well 
 
Any updates to the second search for the Info and Data Request 63561?
 
Kind regards
Marianna James
ADVISOR
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
[email address] | s 9(2)(a)
15 Stout Street, Wellington
NZBN 9429000106078
 
From: Marianna James 
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2023 12:46 PM
To: Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: David Gemmell <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Hi David
 
As discussed, here are the two attachments: the pdf contains emails that DOC captured in their search for a similar
OIA request, this includes the word concession. In addition, the attached email was captured in our search,
however, my reply to the email wasn’t included in the search results.
 
Thanks for the chat and hopefully we can find an approach that could capture majority of the emails !
 
Kind regards
Marianna James
ADVISOR
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 



Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
[email address] | s 9(2)(a)
15 Stout Street, Wellington
NZBN 9429000106078
 
 
From: Marianna James 
 
Sent: Tuesday, 21 November 2023 10:20 am
To: Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: David Gemmell <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Haaha yup, found it! – thanks for the help David 
 
Kind regards
Marianna James
ADVISOR
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
[email address] | s 9(2)(a)
15 Stout Street, Wellington
NZBN 9429000106078
 
From: Records Services <[email address]> 
Sent: Tuesday, 21 November 2023 9:46 am
To: Marianna James <[email address]>; Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: David Gemmell <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Hello again,
 
I was about to let you know that I had added the .pst file to the folder, but I see you have found it already!
 
Thanks
 
David
 
From: Marianna James <[email address]> 


Sent: Monday, 20 November 2023 4:06 PM
To: Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: David Gemmell <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Thanks David – as discussed could you please save the documents here: https://mako.wd.govt.nz/otcs/cs.exe?
func=ll&objId=147219161&objAction=browse&viewType=1
 
Kind regards
Marianna James
ADVISOR
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
[email address]
 
 | s 9(2)(a)
15 Stout Street, Wellington  
NZBN 9429000106078
 
From: Records Services <[email address]> 
Sent: Monday, 20 November 2023 4:03 pm
To: Records Services <[email address]>; Marianna James <[email address]>
Cc: RDU OSI <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Hello,
 
Here is the users list as discussed.
 
Location
Items
[email address]
217
[email address]
194
[email address]
189
[email address]
178
[email address]
130
[email address]
81
[email address]
69
[email address]
62
[email address]
60
[email address]
53
[email address]
41
[email address]
39
[email address]
38
[email address]
35
[email address]
30
[email address]
29
[email address]
26
[email address]
23

[email address]
20
[email address]
18
[email address]
17
[email address]
16
[email address]
15
[email address]
15
[email address]
15
[email address]
15
[email address]
12
[email address]
11
[email address]
10
[email address]
8
 
 
 
From: Records Services 
 
Sent: Friday, 17 November 2023 12:44 PM
To: Marianna James <[email address]>; Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: RDU OSI <RDU [email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Hello again Marianna,
 
I ran three extra searches for this request. I ran one with the extra keyword “concession” and one with the extra
keyword “license”. After seeing the numbers involved in those results I ran a search using both “concession” OR
“license”. The table below shows the items found for each search.
 
Name
Number of
After duplicates
emails
removed
OIA requests on RAL liquidation AND concession - NOT media
944
OIA requests on RAL liquidation AND license - NOT media
1,343
OIA requests on RAL liquidation AND concession OR license - NOT media 1,963
789
 
I only ran the export process for the combined search as the total numbers in that was less than the sum of the
other two searches.
 
Thanks
 
David
 
From: Marianna James <[email address]> 
Sent: Monday, 13 November 2023 3:16 PM
To: Records Services <[email address]>
Cc: Marianna James <[email address]>; RDU OSI <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Hi David
 
Can I please pick this record search up again – due to the large number of emails, the requestor has asked us to
refine the search and to filter for the terms “concession” or “license”.
 
Could you please refine the search – thanks !
 
Kind regards
Marianna James
ADVISOR
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 



Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
[email address] | s 9(2)(a)
15 Stout Street, Wellington
NZBN 9429000106078
 
 
From: Records Services <[email address]
 
> 
Sent: Tuesday, 7 November 2023 2:40 pm
To: Marianna James <[email address]>; Records Services <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Hello again,
 
The total number of emails dropped from 11,876 to 4173 after the duplicates were removed. I have attached a list
of all the email recipients in descending order of number of emails in their mailbox. The list does exceed 900 staff
but there are only 160 staff who have 10 or more emails in their mailbox. I can narrow the search down to
selected users if that helps with making the total more manageable.
 
Thanks
 
David
 
From: Marianna James <[email address]> 
Sent: Tuesday, 7 November 2023 1:07 PM
To: Records Services <[email address]>
Subject: RE: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Thank you for the initial counts David, I’ll await for your following email that will refine the second search 
 
Kind regards
Marianna James
ADVISOR
Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit 
Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
[email address] | s 9(2)(a)
15 Stout Street, Wellington
NZBN 9429000106078
 


From: Records Services <[email address]> 
Sent: Tuesday, 7 November 2023 12:04 pm
To: Marianna James <[email address]>
Subject: Info and Data Request - 63561 - Search for DOIA 2324-0822 [UNCLASSIFIED]
 
Kia ora Marianna,
 
I have run a couple of searches covering the request for emails where content included the discussion of OIA
requests on RAL liquidation or Administration.
 
The first search results was large at over 39,000 emails. I ran a search to strip out media alerts and messages
generated by the OIA workflows. These are not emails that contain any “discussion”, rather they are admin emails
that deal with workflow tasks.
 
 
The second search total after the above messages were removed is 11,876 items. There is bound to be a bit of
duplication in that number so I am exporting the search result so I can give you the final count. That will take a few
 
hours and I will let you know what the number is when I can.
 
Thanks
 
David Gemmell
SENIOR ADVISOR INFORMATION
 
Records and Library Team | Data Strategy and Knowledge | Digital, Data and Insights Group (DDI)
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
 
Telephone: s 9(2)(a)
 
Level 4, 110 Featherston Street, Wellington, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6011, New Zealand
 
Find out how Information and Data can help your business by visiting the Information management and data, LibraryOnline and
Legal resources pages on Te Taura The Link
 
 

From:
Megan Allday
To:
Marianna James
Cc:
Tane Dewes
Subject:
RE: Review: refusal letter DOIA 2324-0822 Stephen Prendergast [IN
DENCE]
Date:
Friday, 8 December 2023 12:49:36 pm
Thanks Marianna – as discussed, change of “Act” to “OIA” to enable us to use the OIA acronym
throughout, and a comment for you to action.
 
Once actioned, good to go to Tane for sign out – no need for me to see again.
 
-----Original Appointment-----
From: Marianna James <[email address]> 
 
Sent: Friday, 8 December 2023 10:43 am
To: Marianna James; Megan Allday
 
Subject: Review: refusal letter DOIA 2324-0822 Stephen Prendergast
When: Friday, 8 December 2023 12:00 pm-12:30 pm (UTC+12:00) Auckland, Wellington.
Where:
 
Hi Megan
 
Booking in time for you to sign-out an refusal letter
 
Can you please review and sign-out my refusal letter for DOIA 2324-0822 Stephen Prendergast
 
Refusal letter - DOIA 2324-0822 Stephen Prendergast
Incoming corro
 
Thanks
Marianna
 

Recall of conversions regarding decision on DOIA 2324-0822 Stephen 
Prendergast 
Cal s between Marianna James and David Gemmel  
•  A�er Record Services email of 17 November 2023, Marianna scoped through the 789 emails 
and iden�fied that there was informa�on missing. Informa�on such as communica�ons 
between Department of Conserva�on (DOC) and Marianna. 
•  On 21 November 2023, Marianna cal ed David Gemmel and explained the above and asked 
to conduct another search to ensure that they had captured everything in scope. 
•  David and Marian na also discussed ways to conduct the search and what search terms would 
be appropriate to  use so that within scope informa�on is included. 
•  On 4 December 2023, Marianna cal ed David and asked for the revised numbers. David 
explained that search resulted in over 3,000 emails. 
•  Marianna asked if there were any other ways to reduce the number of emails and/or if there 
are other appropriate ways to conduct the search. David expressed that he has conducted 
four separate searches to capture the relevant informa�on. 
•  Marianna then asked for the duplicates to be removed to show the final numbers and asked 
if he could send his search results in an email for record purposes. David agreed to do so. 
Mee�ng between Marianna James and Megan Allday 
•  On 6 December 2023, Marianna and Megan had a discussion regarding the cal  Marianna 
had with David and the revised numbers of emails. 
•  It was agreed they would recommend to the sign out manager refusing the request under 
18(f) of the Act, unless the removal of duplicates substan�al y reduced the amount of 
material. They discussed if an extension would enable the request to be processed. 
Decision made: 
•  Following the discussion with Megan, and David’s email of 8 December 2023, the revised 
numbers were confirmed to be a total of 1,256. 
•  Marianna applied MBIE’s �me calcula�on to this number to see how achievable this would 
be, even with an extension. Based on MBIE’s standard calcula�on that it takes five minutes to 
process each email, this would calculate to 104 hours. In addi�on, this did not include the 
�me it would take to recal  and factor in any texts, phone records, and the �me taken to then 
assess the material against the Act and undertake any necessary consulta�ons. 
•   It was deemed that this was too large, no�ng the amount of �me that would be required to 
extract, col ate and assess each of these (to determine if they were in scope of the request or 
not).   
•  The sign out manager made the decision to refuse the request under sec�on 18(f) of the Act, 
as the informa�on requested could not be made available without substan�al colla�on or 
research.   

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