25 February 2025
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #29628 email]
Tēnā koe Erika
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00078359
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) relating Health &
Disability Worker Vaccinations Order Guidance document. On 4 February 2025, Ministry of Health
| Manatū Hauora transferred your request to Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora under section 14
of the Act. You requested the following information.
A document called "Health & Disability Worker Vaccinations Order Guidance document for
PCBUs and workers" is dated Oct 2021 and was published by the Ministry of Health
The MoH has removed the document from its website I assume in 2022. The publication
is no longer on the MoH website. All the memos, correspondence, advice, meetings etc for
the decision to remove this document from the website, the subsequent advice that replaced
this particular document, the notifications and/or communications to all health and disability
PCBUs and workers that this October 2021 dated advice was now no longer applicable.
Response
Health NZ cannot locate any documents within scope of your request. Therefore, your request is
refused under section 18(e) of the Act, as the documents alleged to contain the information
requested does not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
We note that while the referred document was removed and no advice replaced this document,
similar advice was available on the web pages that was sufficient to assist the public, including
where readers could go for additional help.
Recollections sought from our staffs is that processes and legislation changed in the months
preceding the document’s removal, rendering it out of date. Given the options of updating the
document or taking it down, it was likely decided that removing it from the website was the best
course of action. Removal may have been discussed in the frequent implementation stand up
meetings that occurred in the lead up to the legislation change.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sara Freitag
Manager, Machinery of Government Support
National Public Health Service
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand