Dear Ministry of Justice,

1. Please provide all discussion papers and related documentation with respect to the Ministry’s decision to change the way it processes and charges for third-party criminal history requests.

2. I am interested in the following information, so if the material you send does not include this information already (but I expect it will), then please answer the following questions (only include figures for the last financial year, earlier ones are unnecessary):

3. How much did the “old” third-party request system cost annually to administer (please included salaries, etc). Please be sure not to include the cost of providing individuals with their own criminal record, as that is a separate cost and according to Ministry information accounts for 15% of all requests for criminal histories.

4. How many third-party requests were received in the last financial year under the previously free service?

5. How many third-party requests were received in the last financial year under the paying priority service?

6. How much did it cost the Ministry to provide the priority service?

7. How much did it cost the Ministry to provide the free third-party service?

8. How much income in the last financial years was earned under the “old” system from third-party users of the priority service?

9. How much did each criminal check actually cost the Ministry to carry out, under what was previously the old free 20 working day service?

10. How much did each criminal check actually cost the Ministry under the old priority paying system?

11. How was the new pricing regime determined? Who did the Ministry approach for advice, who suggested a three-tier cost structure, and why?

12. What is the rationale for offering three levels of service? How does the new gold service cost more than twice the cost of the new bronze service to administer? What exactly is the difference in cost in processing the three categories?

13. Under the new three-tier system the Ministry has transferred responsibility for examining photo-ID to the third-party requester. This will reduce the cost to the Ministry of completing each criminal check. Please advise how much this reduces the Ministry’s cost for undertaking each check.

14. Why has the Ministry outsourced the receipting of requests to TIMG New Zealand, instead of retaining it in-house?

15. Was this outsourcing put out for tender? If not, why not.

16. How much is the Ministry paying TIMG to administer receipt of requests?

17. How much in the next 12 months has the Ministry projected it will earn under its new pricing regime, for each of the three categories of service now being offered?

18. Please identify any third-parties that the Ministry will not be charging for its new three-tier service, and explain why these agencies and organisations are not being charged.

19. Did the Ministry contact any existing commercial third-party users of the criminal checking service for their comments before implementing the new system? Which companies or organisations were contacted?

20. Why is the Ministry charging foreign-based third-parties the same fee as New Zealand-base third parties, given that the former contribute nothing to the NZ economy through the employment of New Zealanders, payment of GST, and company tax?

Yours faithfully,

Mark Williams

Dear Ministry of Justice

I submitted a request under the Official Information Act on 12 September. On 3 October you replied giving yourself an additional 20 working days to respond and assured me a response would be received "on or before 8 November 2017".

That date has passed and it is 41 working days since I submitted my request, and by law you should have responded by now.

The questions I asked in my request are not novel or unique, the Business Analysts who implemented the change in the Ministry's third-party criminal CCH pricing regime would surely have had all the information I am asking for, before the change was introduced.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Williams