10/06/2024
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #26759 email] [email address]
[email address]
Tēnā koe Erika
OIA: 1328719/1328940/1329041 – COVID-19 and vaccinations
Thank you for your emails of 13, 15 and 17 May 2024 via the FYI website to the Ministry of
Education (the Ministry) requesting the following information, which we have combined for the
purposes of responding, and re-numbered for ease of reference:
1. The COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021 did not come in to affect
for education workers until 2 Jan 2022. I will copy and paste clause 8 of this order:
8 Transitional provision for relevant PCBUs of affected education services Clause
8(1) and (3) does not apply to a relevant PCBU of an affected education service
until 2 January 2022.
Would you kindly share any memos, correspondence, legal advice, inter-ministry comms
etc around Oct and Nov 2021 regarding this clause 8 and which Education bulletins this
information was discussed for and published.
2. The MoE appears to have given advice in a document for people entering schools needing
to be vaccinated here "Schools and Kura Vaccination Order process for their employees":
https://web.archive.org/web/20211203032241/https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/Docu
ments/School/SchoolsBulletin/2021-Bulletins/2021COVID/Oct-COVID-
documents/28OCTMandatoryVaccinationFlowcharts.pdf
This document appears to be a process flow chart and remains on the MoE website as of
today: https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/Documents/School/SchoolsBulletin/2021-
Bulletins/2021COVID/Oct-COVID-documents/28OCTMandatoryVaccinationFlowcharts.pdf
Would you please share the minutes, emails, any correspondence and policy documents
for the decision to publish this document above saying that a service provider, contractors
and volunteers would need their vaccination status considered to work (paid or unpaid) at a
school?
8 Gilmer Terrace, Levels Ground floor, 1, 2, and 6-14, Wellington
PO Box 1666, Wellington 6140 Phone: +64 4 463 8000
Please include any legal discussions and legal advice, and also refer to the specific
sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 as the basis for this process flow chart
and the "Schedule 2 Groups of Affected Persons" in the Covid-19 Public Health Response
(Vaccinations) Order 2021.
3. Was Covid 19 a disease reported to WorkSafe by The Ministry of Education?
4. Did Covid 19 arise out of the nature of work at Ministry of Education and any of its facilities
or schools?
5. Is there or was there in the past, any genetic “gain of function” work taking place at the
Ministry of Education facilities on corona viruses, or the nursing of corona virus patients?
6. Please provide the written authorisation from the Director General specifying persons at
The Ministry of Education who were authorised enforcement person(s) under section 18 (2)
the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. Please provide the functions and powers
that could be carried out by the authorised enforcement person(s) and;
7. Please provide the number of exemptions issued to The Ministry of Education workers
under clause 9 of the Covid 19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021;
8. Please provide any other exemptions issued to staff, please provide grounds and number
issued and;
9. In relation to covid 19 vaccines, any payment The Ministry of Education and/or its
subsidiaries received for each staff member that was vaccinated, the amount and the
scheme the payment was provided under and;
10. Any payment the Ministry of Education and/or its subsidiaries received for leasing or renting
floor space, or allowing mobile clinics on-site for vaccination in 2021 and 2022 and the
scheme the payment was provided under.
Your request has been considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Regarding
part one of your request, I have identified one Cabinet Paper in scope. I am refusing to
provide a copy of this paper under section 18(d) of the Act, as it is publicly available at the
following li
nk: https://assets.education.govt.nz/public/Documents/our-work/information-
releases/Advice-Seen-by-our-Ministers/October-2021/Education-System-Vaccination-and-Testing-
Requirements-Redacted.pdf.
Due to the significant volume of remaining correspondence at the time regarding the topics shared
with schools via the Bulletins which is not centrally stored in a manner in which it would be easily
retrieved, I am refusing the remainder of this part of your request under section 18(f) of the Act, as
the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
In any case, I note that correspondence seeking or receiving legal advice would be withheld under
section 9(2)(h) of the Act, to maintain legal professional privilege.
Regarding
part two of your request, again, information relating to the publishing of the
Schools
and Kura Vaccination Order process for their employees flowchart is not centrally stored in a
manner in which it would be easily retrieved. Any attempt to collate such information would require
a keyword search of the Ministry’s systems that would be likely to generate a significant volume of
‘hits’ to search through in order to determine if they were in scope. I am therefore also refusing this
part of your request under section 18(f) of the Act, as above.
OIA: 1328719/1328940/1329041
In coming to this decision, as required by sections 18A and 18B of the Act, I have considered
whether the Ministry would be able to meet your request by seeking further refinement, fixing a
charge, or extending the time limit for responding. However, we have determined that none of
these mechanisms would be appropriate, and any possible refinement would be unlikely to reduce
the volume of material significantly.
Regarding
parts three, four and five of your request, I can advise that COVID-19 is not a disease
that the Ministry reported to WorkSafe, there was no “gain of function” work at the Ministry, and
COVID-19 did not arise out of the nature of the Ministry’s work. Please note that the Ministry did
acknowledge that teaching would be a high-risk profession due to community transmission in the
place of work.
As
parts six, nine and ten of your request are for information not applicable to the Ministry, I am
refusing these parts under section 18(e) of the Act, as the information requested does not exist.
Regarding the
part seven of your request, approximately 59% of the approximately 4,352 Ministry
employees were covered under the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Order 2021
(the Public Health Order) when it was in effect and none of these staff were granted a vaccine
exemption. Please note, Ministry staffing numbers are not static and therefore it is difficult to
provide exact figures on how many staff were covered under the mandate.
Regarding
part eight of your request, no other exemptions were made.
Thank you again for your email. You have the right to ask an Ombudsman to review my decision
on your request, in accordance with section 28 of the Act. You can do this by writing to
[email address] or to Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143.
Nāku noa, nā
Emma Drysdale
Manager Official and Parliamentary Information
Te Pou Rangatōpū | Corporate
OIA: 1328719/1328940/1329041
