Benefits of establishing a Criminal Cases Review Commission

Ross Francis made this Official Information request to Ministry of Justice

The request was partially successful.

From: Ross Francis

Dear Ministry of Justice,

In the Ministry’s response of 14 June 2017 to my request for information, Jeff Orr stated that the Ministry's record keeping practices “were robust in 2001 and remain so today”.

What role (if any) did Mr Orr have with the Justice Ministry in 2001, and did his role include auditing the record-keeping practices of senior officials such as Val Sim or Michael Petherick? Who (if anyone) did Mr Orr communicate with to enable him to state that the Ministry's record keeping practices were robust in 2001?

Please provide a copy of the policy from 2001 that allowed senior officials within the Ministry to hold high level discussions about a possible miscarriage of justice without having to create a record of those discussions.

The Ministry’s policy on conflicts of interest says that they “need to be identified and managed carefully in order to maintain public trust and confidence in the justice system”. In regards to the Ministerial Inquiry into the Peter Ellis case, the Ministry is aware that lawyer Wendy Ball had previously informed Dr Louise Sas, who provided her opinion to that inquiry, that Peter Ellis was widely regarded as a “disgusting paedophile”. Sas learnt from Ball that the "effects of [media coverage of the case] on the children abused by Ellis is (sic) far reaching and devastating".

Please provide a copy of information about conflicts of interest that was provided to the parties involved with the Ministerial Inquiry.

According to records held by the Ministry, what are the benefits, or potential benefits, of establishing a Criminal Cases Review Commission?

Yours faithfully,

Ross Francis

Link to this

From: Paltridge, Antony
Ministry of Justice


Attachment image001.jpg
15K Download

Attachment Response to Ross Francis for OIA request 19.6.17 dated 14.7.17.pdf
772K Download View as HTML


Dear Mr Francis

 

Please find attached a response to your OIA request.

 

Regards

 

 

 

   

[1]Description: Description: Description: Antony Paltridge
http://justice.govt.nz/courts/shared/jus...
Team Leader (Media and
External Relations) |
Communication Services
DDI: +64 4 918 8980

[2]www.justice.govt.nz

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Confidentiality notice:
This email may contain information that is confidential or legally
privileged. If you have received it by mistake, please:
(1) reply promptly to that effect, and remove this email and the reply
from your system;
(2) do not act on this email in any other way.
Thank you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

References

Visible links
2. http://www.justice.govt.nz/

hide quoted sections

Link to this

Luke C left an annotation ()

What a fascinating response.

1. Mr Orr claims that the Ministry's record keeping practices were robust in 2001, yet is unable to locate the records management policy in effect at the time. How can these two statements be reconciled?

2. It is ironic that it is the records management policy that he couldn't find, as opposed to any other policy. Records management is about maintaining records through their lifecycle and only disposing of records in accordance with a disposal authority.

3. I think Mr Orr may be becoming irksome of your requests, and has decided they are vexatious. This is a high bar.

Link to this

Things to do with this request

Anyone:
Ministry of Justice only: