28 November 2024
Ref: DOIA-REQ-0006395-Erika Whittome
Erika Whittome
Email:
[FYI request #29191 email]
Tēnā koe Erika
Thank you for your email of 14 November 2024 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following
information:
I see sometime in December 2023 this page was removed from the MBIE website
https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fweb.archive.org%
2Fweb%2F20230201212615%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.business.govt.nz%2Fcovid-
19%2Fvaccination-assessment-
tool&data=05%7C02%7CMinisterialServices%40mbie.govt.nz%7Cfc70070011f14783ed6c
08dd04096181%7C78b2bd11e42b47eab0112e04c3af5ec1%7C0%7C0%7C6386711617514
83445%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAw
MCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C60000%7C%7C%7C&sdata
=xZeGggIoekiMxp6YfViARgXgetkiou8ctgNjifDo%2FQk%3D&reserved=0
The page said:
Employers may still be able to maintain vaccination requirements, however these
requirements would need to be supported by a full work health and safety risk
assessment. The circumstances where vaccination could be required are likely to be more
limited than they have in the past.
Would you please share all the advice including legal advice, memos, correspondence,
emails, policy documents etc that brought about the decision to remove this page from
the MBIE website under the OIA.
This webpage was unpublished in May 2023. As the pandemic was a public health event,
throughout the COVID response, the business.govt.nz webpage followed advice and legal
settings outlined by the Ministry of Health. This content remained live for 12 months following
the revocation of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccination Assessment Tool)
Regulations 2021 (12 May 2022). There was no longer a need to keep it live.
This decision to revoke the COVID-19 Public Health Response Regulations 2021 was based on the
advice of the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety. The advice that led to the revocation
of the Regulations was provided by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport. You
may wish to make requests for information to these agencies for documentation that led to this
decision.
To meet the needs of our businesses and provide tailored support that is easy to find, we
regularly review the content on business.govt.nz to ensure it remains relevant. Twelve months
was considered a suitable amount of time to ensure small businesses were aware of the
vaccination tool and related content’s removal as a result of the regulations being
revoked. When information is no longer relevant or is superseded, the pages are removed from
visibility or deleted altogether.
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
Tui Rutherford
Head of Small Business Services
Te Whakaitaranga Service Delivery
