Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,

I would like to request under the Official Information Act:

* the name and areas of responsibility of each Officials' committee that currently exist to support Cabinet Committees

* a copy of the oldest available agenda for a meeting of each of the Officials' committees that are currently in existence.

Although it is not required, I understand it is often helpful to explain the reason for a request. The reason for my request is to try to gain a greater understanding of how Cabinet functions, and the deliniation of responsibilities between officials and Cabinet, as I have been told that much of the real work and real decisions are made in Officials' Committees rather than Cabinet Committees. I have requested the oldest available agendas for each because the strength of most of the exemptions under the Official Information Act fade over time.

Feel free to contact me if you wish me to clarify my request. For the purposes of s12 of the OIA I am a New Zealand citizen resident in New Zealand.

Yours faithfully,

Joshua Grainger

Dear Jody Watson,

I was wondering if DPMC would reconsider the withholding of the names of the officials who sit on Official's Committees, given the advice in the Ombudsmen Quarterly Review, volume 8 issue 3.

This states that: "Public officials’ names should, in principle, be available when requested under the Official Information Act (OIA). Anonymity of public employees and statutory appointees should be reserved for special circumstances – such as where the safety of individuals is at issue."

I would also note the discussion of this issue in the OQR Volume 1, issue 3: "While the name of an official in one sense personal information about them, disclosure of a name in the context of their position in the public sector will not unduly or unreasonably infringe upon the official’s privacy"

Even if the names cannot be released, would it be possible to release the job titles of those who sit on the committees? I note that the attached extra document, "A National Security Policy for New Zealand", does this, stating which staff are on ODESC (which I would note are all senior level staff that I could look up the names of if I desired to do so).

Yours sincerely,

Joshua Grainger