Author(s): G. D. S. Taylor

NZ Non-fiction

Written by barrister Graham Taylor and Professor Paul Roth, Access to Information provides understanding and guidance in relation to New Zealand's access to information regime, particularly dealing with requests for official information.   This book is about the access to information regime in New Zealand. In practice, the regime mainly involves access to official information under the Official Information Act 1982 and the Local Government Information and Meetings Act 1987. However, with the enactment of the Privacy Act 1993, it also involves access to individual’s personal information held by both public and private sector agencies. This book aims to provide practical guidance on how to respond appropriately to information requests under the regime. The book is based on Chapter 9 of the highly successful Judicial Review: A New Zealand Perspective, Second Edition. The information in that chapter has been added to and reorganised to cover: General principles and concepts of the access to information regime. Practice and procedure in seeking access to information. Justifications for withholding information. Reasons for decisions. Correction of personal information. Remedies for denying access. The book also includes appendices of practical tools. For example; a checklist for processing official information requests, a flowchart used by government departments when dealing with requests for access to information, guidelines for official information requests, and a table of parallel provisions.