Corrections’ Official Information Act statistics
Following the release of the Ombudsman’s report[1] into practices adopted by central government agencies for the purpose of compliance with the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), Corrections has applied additional data collection practices for all pieces of correspondence received into National Office from 1 July 2016, which has strengthened our ability to monitor compliance with the Act, including where information requested has been refused for release. In addition to providing increased levels of performance reporting against compliance activities to the Chief Ombudsman, the information will also be used internally to support continued process improvement within the team and across the wider business. This information will be regularly updated and reported here on a quarterly basis.
To help meet these requirements, Corrections added additional resources to manage the increasing volume of correspondence, with additional permanent staff. We have also lifted our performance this year to a response rate of 95% within the legislated timeframe, which indicates the importance Corrections places on timely responses.
View information published by SSC and Office of the Ombudsman
Official Information Act timeliness and release of requests
It is important to note that the below table consists of OIAs that are managed by National Office, and does not include OIAs managed by prisons, Community Correction sites or Regional Offices.
Financial Year | 2020/2021 | 2019/2020 | 2018/19 | 2017/2018 | 2016/2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Official Information Act requests received and responded to | 7,491 | 6,392 | 5,057 | 4,054 | 3,568 |
| % of responses responded to within the statutory timeframe | 96.8% | 98.2% | 98.5% | 98.3% | 97% |
| % of responses where an extension was deemed necessary | 4.5% | 2.5% | 3.1% | 3.1% | - |
| % of OIA responses where the information was released in full | 94.2% | 93.1% | 88.6% | 88% | - |
| % of information requests fully transferred in accordance with Section 14 of OIA | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.47% | 0.25% | 0.7% |
| % of information requests partially released | 2.4% | 3% | 5.6% | 5% | - |
| % of OIA requests where the information requested was refused under section 6, 9 or 18 of the OIA | 3.1% | 2.7% | 6.1% | 6.75% | 10.8% |
| Average number of working days to respond to an OIA | 8.5 | 5.5 | 6.3 | 9.2 | 8.4 |
| Ombudsman OIA Complaint - Investigations notified to Corrections | 27 | 31 | 34 | 27 | 45 |
| Ombudsman OIA Complaint – Final Opinions | 5 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 19 |