Pānui tika Proactive release

Proactive release of information promotes good government, openness and transparency and fosters public trust and confidence in agencies.

Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission has published guidance on proactive release of official information to assist agencies to develop internal policies and practices in relation to proactive release, including responses to requests for information under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). We have also developed some practical tips to help agencies put in place the processes needed for publishing completed OIA requests.

 Proactive release of official information(PDF, 135 KB)

Official information publishing responses to official information act requests on agency websites(PDF, 155 KB)

Our reports on OIA Statistics now include statistics on agencies’ proactive publication of responses to official information requests.

OIA statistics

Locations for the publication of proactively released material

We encourage agencies to proactively release responses to OIA requests. Agencies are also required to proactively release Cabinet papers on behalf of their ministers, where the minister has authorised them for publication.

This resource captures the publishing location of both types of information, where agencies use a centralised publication model, that is, all releases of these types are published to, or available via, a single location on their websites.

Note if an agency does not appear in this resource, it does not necessarily mean that agency is not publishing this information. It may publish the information, but in a decentralised way. To see which agencies publish OIA responses, refer to the Official Information Act statistics dataset.

OIA statistics

OIA proactive release locations as at July 2023(XLSX, 26 KB)

Proactive release of Cabinet papers

The Cabinet has agreed a new policy to proactively release Cabinet material as part of its commitment to Open Government.

The new policy applies to the proactive release of all Cabinet and Cabinet committee papers (excluding Appointments and Honours papers) lodged from 1 January 2019. They are to be released and published online, with the approval of the relevant portfolio minister, no later than 30 business days after final Cabinet decisions have been made unless there is good reason not to publish all or part of the material, or to delay the release.  The normal assessments for releasing official information, and a due diligence process to consider potential liability that might arise from publication, must occur prior to proactive release.

Further details are provided in the Cabinet paper and Cabinet Office Circular, which are linked below:

• Cabinet Paper — Strengthening Proactive Release Requirements(PDF, 2.3 MB)
• Cabinet Office Circular CO (23) 4 — Proactive Release of Cabinet Material: Updated Requirements
• Cabinet Paper - Cabinet has also set out areas where it would like to see proactive release expanded over time. The next steps in the public release of official information (PDF, 431 KB)