New Zealand Government Information Environment

Guidance for managing government-held information is provided by the Policy Framework for Government-held Information. Its principles cover availability, coverage, pricing, ownership, stewardship, collection, copyright, preservation, quality, integrity and privacy. The principles reflect the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982, Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, the Privacy Act 1993, Copyright Act 1994 and specific legislation such as the Statistics Act 1975.

The Policy Framework for Government-held Information is being applied at a strategic and policy level. It is referenced in the Health, Justice and Geospatial Sector information strategies and in agencies' Information Management strategies. The pricing principle is cited in Treasury's Guidelines for setting charges in the public sector⁹ and is well applied across Public Service departments. Public Service departments delivering information-based services are applying the stewardship principle. Examples are the Ministry of Health and Land Information New Zealand.

The New Zealand Government Data Management Policies and Standards¹⁰, released in 2000, supplement the Policy Framework for Government-held Information, in particular, the ownership and stewardship principles. This document was drawn up to assist agency chief executives and anyone with delegated custodial responsibilities for Crown owned data or document assets.

The Public Records Act 2005 establishes a framework for creating and maintaining public records¹¹. It guarantees the public's right to free inspection of open access records.

The E-government Strategy, Digital Strategy, Digital Content and draft Digital Continuity Strategies¹² set out visionary statements for, amongst much else, the management of New Zealand's digital content.

Footnotes

⁹ http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/guidance/finmgmt-reporting/charges/charges-dec02.pdf

¹⁰ http://www.e.govt.nz/standards/e-gif/data-management/data-management-policies/index.html/view?searchterm=data%20management

¹¹ any information that is compiled, recorded or stored in any format

¹² http://www.e.govt.nz/about-egovt/strategy/nov-2006/;
http://www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz/Digital-Strategy-2/;
http://www.digitalstrategy.govt.nz/Resources/New-Zealand-Digital-Content-Strategy/;
http://continuum.archives.govt.nz/digital-continuity-strategy.html#DCS_draft_doc_2