Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

Requests for access to information held by local authorities

17B: Duty to consider consulting person if request likely to be refused under section 17(e) or (f)

You could also call this:

"Local authorities must think about discussing your request with you before saying no to it."

Illustration for Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

If you ask a local authority for information, they might refuse your request under section 17(e) or (f). Before they refuse, they must think about talking to you to see if they can help you change your request. This could help you get the information you want by removing the reason they would refuse it. You can find more information about this in section 17(e) or (f). The local authority has to consider consulting with you before they say no to your request.

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This page was last updated on 18 July 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM123008.

Topics:

Government and voting > Local councilsRights and equality > Privacy

17A: Requests involving substantial collation or research, or

"When a local authority thinks your information request is too much work to answer"

18: Reason for refusal to be given, or

"If a local authority says no to your information request, they must tell you why."

Part 2Requests for access to information held by local authorities

17BDuty to consider consulting person if request likely to be refused under section 17(e) or (f)

If a request is likely to be refused under section 17(e) or (f), the local authority must, before that request is refused, consider whether consulting with the person who made the request would assist that person to make the request in a form that would remove the reason for the refusal.

Notes

Section 17B: inserted, on 22 October 2003, by section 3 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 82).