Thank you for your email to the Ministry of Environment (the Ministry). 

The Ministry is committed to openness, transparency and accountability and
we are working to provide responses to correspondence and requests as soon
as possible.  

You will receive an acknowledgement of your request and we will advise of
expected timeframes for a response.  

Fulfilling our statutory obligations under the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act) is important to us. If you have made a request under the
Act and have not received an acknowledgement within one working day,
please contact [1][email address].  

Information about OIA requests during COVID-19 is available on the
Ombudsman’s website: [2]FAQs about official information requests during
COVID-19 | Ombudsman New Zealand  

If you have been redirected by an out of office message from a Ministerial
team member, an alternate Ministerial Services team member will be in
touch in the next 24 Hours.

 

Thank you for your patience.  Noho ora mai  

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]
2. https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/reso...

Kia ora Joshua Sims,

Thank you for your Official Information Act request received on
21/02/2024.

We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in
any event no later than 20 working days after the day your request was
received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension to that timeframe.

Please note the Ministry for the Environment will release responses to
selected OIA requests on our [1]OIA responses page shortly after the
response has been sent.

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us at
[MFE request email].

Please note that this Taku Mahi inbox is not monitored.

Ngâ mihi nui

Ministerial Services Team 

Ministry for the Environment – Manatû Mô Te Taiao

Email: [MFE request email] Website: [2]www.mfe.govt.nz 

8 Willis Street, Wellington Central, Wellington 6011

References

Visible links
1. http://www.mfe.govt.nz/about-us/official...
2. http://www.mfe.govt.nz/

Tçnâ koe Joshua

 

Thank you for your email of 21 February 2024 to the Ministry for the
Environment (the Ministry) requesting the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):

 

I request information regarding the individual roles, working groups,
researchers, research teams and other groupings of this nature, if any,
that are going to be cut from your relevant Ministry or departmental
agency owing to the government’s policy of reducing the public service.

 

Relevant information would include:

o The roles that may be considered superfluous enough to warrant
redundancy and why Any bodies, boards, working groups or
researchers/research teams considered superfluous enough to be closed
or made redundant and why.
o A brief accompanying description of the duties, roles, scope and
cancelled projects of the above mentioned where relevant to the
individual or group in question.

 

Your request has been considered under the Act.

 

The Ministry went through an Operating Model Review in 2023, before the
new Government was established. The review recommended a new structure for
the Ministry, and changes to Tier 2 and Tier 3 roles. This led to 45 roles
being disestablished and replaced by 33 new roles. Due to recruitment
controls put in place leading into the change process and natural
attrition, remaining affected employees were able to be reassigned and
appointed to the new roles. No employees have been made redundant through
this process to date. The Ministry is not currently in a consultation
process with our staff as there is no change proposed to existing roles,
and voluntary redundancy has not been offered to staff.

 

The Minister of Finance, Hon Nicola Willis, announced as part of the
mini-Budget in December 2023, the Government is seeking $1.5 billion per
annum in savings to deliver on policy commitments and fund critical cost
pressures. Minister Willis has asked agencies to identify savings options
of either 6.5 percent or 7.5 percent, depending on how much their
full-time staff numbers increased since 2017. Agencies are currently
working to identify credible savings proposals.

 

These proposals, including a description of the associated rationale,
risks and trade-offs tied to each option, will be provided to the Treasury
and Minister Willis as part of Budget 2024 submissions. Ministers and
Cabinet will then make final decisions on whether to accept these
proposals as part of the Budget 2024 process. Information related to
savings is still actively being considered by Ministers and will continue
to be throughout the Budget process.

 

Therefore, in response to your request, the Ministry is withholding the
information you have requested under section 9(2)(f)(iv) of the Act, to
maintain the constitutional conventions for the time being which protect
the confidentiality of advice tendered by Ministers of the Crown and
officials. In terms of section 9(1) of the Act, I am satisfied that, in
the circumstances, the withholding of this information is not outweighed
by other considerations that render it desirable to make the information
available in the public interest.

 

Consistent with past practice and recognizing the strong public interest
in Budget decisions, we have been advised that the Treasury will be
undertaking a Budget proactive release, with information scheduled to be
released in the weeks following Budget Day. Information related to savings
is still actively being considered by Ministers and will continue to be
throughout the Budget process.

 

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of
the Ombudsman of my decision to withhold information relating to this
request, in accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. The relevant details
can be found on their website at: [1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.

 

Nâku noa, nâ

Official Information team

 

Ashleigh Watson [2]she/her

Senior Advisor | Kaitohutohu Matua
Ministerial Services

Ministry for the Environment | Manatu Mo Te Taiao

[3][email address] | [4]environment.govt.nz
[5]Text Description [6][IMG] [7][IMG] [8][IMG] [9][IMG] [10][IMG]  
automatically generated
 

 

 

 

References

Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
2. https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/guidan...
https://www.publicservice.govt.nz/guidan...
3. mailto:[email address]
4. https://environment.govt.nz/
5. http://www.mfe.govt.nz/
6. https://www.facebook.com/environmentgovt...
7. https://www.instagram.com/environmentgov...
8. https://www.linkedin.com/company/environ...
9. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXZKmx5...
10. https://twitter.com/environmentgvnz