24 January 2024
T Murray
Via email: fyirequest25279[email address]
Tēnā koe T Murray
Request for information: Initial meeting with Associate Minister of Health (Pharmac)
Thank you for your request dated 21 December 2023 under the Official Information Act 1982
(OIA) for information. You requested:
I would like to request the fol owing information:
The date, time and location of your initial meeting with the new Minister for your
department;
A list of attendees at this meeting
The cost of any flights and accommodation for staff who reside outside of
wel ington to attend this meeting
Any documentation provided at the meeting
Al notes (including handwritten notes) taken at the meeting by department staff;
A copy of any emails sent by department attendees or al staff communications
regarding the meeting with the new Minister.
An initial meeting between Pharmac and the Associate Minister of Health (Pharmac) was
held at Parliament at 4:45pm on 18 December 2023. Ordinarily we would partial y transfer
your request under section 14 of the Act, for information held by their Office, however, as you
have made the same request to the Office of Hon David Seymour, we instead refer you to
their response.
Below is the information held by Pharmac relevant to your request.
The initial meeting was attended by:
Hon David Seymour, Associate Minister of Health (Pharmac)
Dr Peter Bramley, Pharmac Acting Board Chair
Dr Diana Sarfati, Director General of Health
Andrew Ketels, ACT Party Chief of Staff
A total of $596.57 were spent on flights and accommodation for the Pharmac Acting Board
Chair. The costs were:
1.
Flight from Nelson to Wel ington $176.39
2.
Accommodation $175.20
3.
Flight from Wel ington to Nelson $244.98
Pharmac has not identified any documents or meeting notes in scope of your request.
However, you may be interested in the Briefing to the Incoming Minister which was prepared
202324097; A1747304
to support the new ministers. A copy of this briefing is being prepared for proactive release in
due course.
Attached to this response you wil find a copy of al email communications that Pharmac
holds regarding the meeting with the new Minister. Some information is withheld according to
OIA section 9(2)(a), to protect the privacy of individuals.
In making our decision, we have considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1) of
the Act. No public interest has been identified that would be sufficient to override the reasons
for withholding that information.
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.
To make information more freely available, we publish selected OIA responses (excluding
personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about
this.
Nāku noa, nā
Oliver Whitehead
Team Leader, Government Services
202324097; A1747304
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