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OIA24-0613
3 December 2024
Craig Innes
[FYI request #28046 email]
Dear Craig Innes
Thank you for your email of 20 August 2024 requesting information relating to the Emissions
Trading Scheme (ETS). Your request has been considered under the Of icial Information Act
1982 (OIA).
On 13 September 2024 Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) extended the time limit to
respond to your request to 7 October 2024.
You requested the following:
1. Please provide a break down of all ETS applications that are currently under review
together with the date of first application.
Currently there are 246 ETS applications under review.
•
187 reviews were requested for decisions made in 2022.
•
32 reviews were requested for decisions made in 2023.
•
27 reviews were requested for decisions made in 2024.
The earliest review in processing was requested on 19 April 2022.
Our new online system, Tupu-ake, is being rolled out in stages. The functionality to complete
review of decisions was successful y deployed on 19 August 2024. These applications are now
being processed in order of request.
Now that Tupu-ake can support reviews of decisions, these wil be the focus of the ETS Operations
team between now and the end of the year. Because of this, we expect processing rates to
increase dramatically.
2. Please provide details of the number of ETS applications, together with the average
time taken to process the applications over the last five years.
The below table (Table One) contains the number of ETS land registration applications processed
from 2019-2024 to date, and the median and average working days taken to process these.
1 The
size, complexity, and quality of the application all impact processing times.
Table One
1 This includes both new applications to register into the ETS, as wel as applications to add more land for existing ETS
participants.
Charles Fergusson Building, 34-38 Bowen Street
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
mpi.govt.nz
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Year
Median
Average
Number of
Area approved
processing time processing time applications
(hectares)
(workdays)
2
(workdays)
processed
2019
88
109
64
3,481
2020
102
113
202
13,245
2021
95.5
109
308
20,117
2022
144
144
2,167
195,439
2023
198
174
337
18,376
2024
97
106
551
72,653
In 2022 and 2023, the median processing time for land registration applications increased due to a
significant volume of applications being submitted, the significant scale and transition to a new
operating model and the deployment of Tupu-ake.
Since 2021, there has been a 79% increase in the volume of applications submitted and a 261%
increase in the number of hectares approved. It currently takes a median of 97 working days to
process a land registration application. The reduction of time taken to process these applications is
a result of investment in Tupu-ake, improved processes, and increased sector support and
education. Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Forest Service is committed to continuing to drive
processing times down and work with the sector to identify further opportunities for efficiencies.
Should you have any concerns with this response, I would encourage you to raise these with
the Ministry for Primary Industries at
[email address]. Alternatively, you
are advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman.
Contact details are: Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143 or at
[email address].
Yours sincerely
Tess Keough
Acting Director Forestry Operations
2 Te Uru Rākau - New Zealand Forest Service has also reported on the median working days as the median is less
impacted by outliers such as incomplete applications.
2
