Source: Office of the Ombudsman
The Office of the Ombudsman has published its half-yearly data on Official Information Act (OIA) and Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) complaints.
The data covers the number of complaints received under each Act from 1 July to 31 December 2025 as well as the number of complaints completed by the Ombudsman during this period.
The number of complaints about the way government agencies handle OIA requests has continued to rise year on year. In the most recent six-month period, there was an increase of 173 complaints compared to the previous half year (1,198 complaints, up from 1,025 in the previous half year).
The top three types of OIA complaints related to refusals in full (322, up from 260), delays in making a decision (280, up from 210), and partial refusals (247, down from 258).
Of the total received, 953 were from individuals (up from 794), 121 from media (up from 113), 55 from companies, associations, incorporated societies or collectives (up from 54).
There were 322 complaints made under the LGOIMA, up from the previous six-monthly period when 251 complaints were received.
Of the 322 LGOIMA complaints received, 290 were from individuals (up from 209), 19 from the media (up from 14), and 12 from companies, associations, incorporated societies or collectives (down from 20).
The top four types of LGOIMA complaints were refusals in full (87, up from 66), refusals in part (87, up from 52), inadequate or incomplete responses (53, up from 47), and delays in making decisions (49, down from 53).
Complaints data (1 July – 31 December 2025)
Complaints received
Complaint type Individual Media Other Total received LGOIMA 290 19 13 322 OIA 953 121 124 1,198
LGOIMA or OIA complaints received may also be from: political party research units; trade unions; special interest groups, companies, associations, incorporated societies, Members of Parliament, etc. These are categorised as ‘Other’ in this table. See this half year data set for more detail.
Reasons for complaints
Complaint type Delay in decision Refusal in full Refusal in part Incomplete/ inadequate response Extension Other LGOIMA 49 87 87 53 15 31 OIA 280 322 247 102 71 176
The ‘Other’ category may include complaints about decisions to make information available subject to a charge; the manner or form in which information was released; alleged delay in releasing information; extensions of the time limit to making decisions on requests; refusal – statement of reasons; refusal – internal rules and guidelines; refusal – personal information about body corporate. See this half year data set for more detail.
Complaints completed
Complaint type Individual Media Other Total completed LGOIMA 333 28 29 390 OIA 1,253 151 156 1,560
About the data
The data released by the Ombudsman concerns both OIA and LGOIMA complaints received and completed from 1 July to 31 December 2025. It includes information on the number of complaints received by Minister or agency, the nature of the complaint and type of complainant (media, private individual, etc). For the complaints completed, the data also includes the outcome of the complaint.
The data does not enable a direct comparison between agencies, as complaints data on its own does not give the full picture. The number of complaints received by the Ombudsman may be a very small proportion of the total number of OIA or LGOIMA requests received by an agency.
Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission publishes its own data on OIA requests received by agencies and their response times on the same day as the Ombudsman publishes.
