Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

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2 Interpretation

  • (1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

    Department means a Government Department named in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Ombudsmen Act 1975 (other than the Parliamentary Counsel Office)

    Document means a document in any form, and includes—

    • (a) Any writing on any material:

    • (b) Any information recorded or stored by means of any tape-recorder, computer, or other device; and any material subsequently derived from information so recorded or stored:

    • (c) Any label, marking, or other writing that identifies or describes any thing of which it forms part, or to which it is attached by any means:

    • (d) Any book, map, plan, graph, or drawing:

    • (e) Any photograph, film, negative, tape, or other device in which one or more visual images are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other equipment) of being reproduced:

    Enactment—

    • (a) Means any provision of—

      • (i) Any Act of Parliament; or

      • (ii) Any regulations within the meaning of the Regulations Act 1936 made by Order in Council; and

    • (b) In relation to section 54 of this Act, includes any bylaw, standing order, or rule of procedure of any local authority:

    Local authority—

    • (a) For the purposes of Parts 1 to 6 of this Act, means those local authorities and public bodies named or specified in Schedule 1 to this Act; and

    • (b) For the purposes of Parts 7 and 8 of this Act, means those local authorities and public bodies named or specified in Schedule 1 or Schedule 2 to this Act,—

    and, in both cases, includes—

    • (c) Any committee or subcommittee or standing committee or special committee or joint standing committee or joint special committee which the local authority is empowered to appoint under its standing orders or rules of procedure or under any enactment or Order in Council constituting the local authority or regulating its proceedings; and

    • (d) A committee of the whole local authority:

    Member, in relation to a local authority, means any person elected or appointed to that local authority or to any committee or subcommittee of that local authority, and includes the presiding member of that local authority or of any committee or subcommittee of that local authority

    Official information—

    • (a) Means any information held by a local authority; but

    • (b) Does not include—

      • (i) Information contained in library or museum material made or acquired and preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes; or

      • (ii) Information which is held by a local authority solely as an agent or for the sole purpose of safe custody and which is so held on behalf of a person other than a local authority; or

      • (iii) Information contained in any correspondence or communication that has taken place between the office of the Ombudsmen and any local authority and that relates to an investigation conducted by an Ombudsman under this Act or under the Ombudsmen Act 1975, other than information that came into existence before the commencement of that investigation; and

    • (c) Does not include information contained in any correspondence or communication that has taken place between the office of the Privacy Commissioner and any local authority and that relates to any investigation conducted by the Privacy Commissioner under the Privacy Act 1993, other than information that came into existence before the commencement of that investigation:

    Official information: this definition was amended, as from 1 July 1993, by section 2(1) and (2) Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 1993 (1993 No 37) by inserting the expression “; and” to paragraph (b) and inserting paragraph (c).

    Ombudsmen means the Ombudsmen holding office under the Ombudsmen Act 1975

    Organisation means—

    • (a) An organisation named in Part 2 of the Schedule 1 to the Ombudsmen Act 1975 (other than the Parliamentary Service Commission):

    Person includes a corporation sole, and also a body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate

    Personal information means any official information held about an identifiable person

    Prescribed amount, in relation to any document or copy of any document provided pursuant to this Act, means the amount determined in accordance with regulations made under this Act

    Presiding member means the Chairman or presiding member of a local authority; and includes the Mayor of a borough; and also includes any person acting as the Chairman or presiding member of a local authority or of any committee or subcommittee of a local authority

    Publicly notified means notified in some newspaper circulating in the district, or, where there is no such newspaper in general circulation, means notified on printed placards affixed to public places in the district

    Statutory officer means a person—

    • (a) Holding or performing the duties of an office established by an enactment; or

    • (b) Performing duties expressly conferred on that person by virtue of that person's office by an enactment:

    Working day means any day of the week other than—

    • (a) Saturday, Sunday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Labour Day, the Sovereign's Birthday, and Waitangi Day; and

    • (b) A day in the period commencing with the 25th day of December in any year and ending with the 15th day of January in the following year.

    (2) [Repealed]

    (3) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, information that is held by an officer or employee or member of a local authority in that person's capacity as such an officer or employee or member or in that person's capacity as a statutory officer shall be deemed to be held by the local authority of which that person is an officer or employee or member.

    (4) Nothing in subsection (3) of this section applies in respect of any information that any officer or employee or member of a local authority would not hold but for that person's membership of, or connection with, a body other than a local authority, except where that membership or connection is in that person's capacity as such an officer or employee or member of that local authority or as a statutory officer.

    (5) [Repealed]

    (6) Where any local authority enters into any contract (other than a contract of employment) with any person in relation to any matter, any information that is held by that person and to which the local authority is, under or by virtue of that contract, entitled to have access, shall be deemed to be held by that local authority.

    Subsection 2 was repealed, as from 1 October 1991, by section 362 Resource Management Act 1991 (1991 No 69).

    Subsection (4) was substituted, as from 1 July 1993, by section 2(3) Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 1993 (1993 No 37).

    Subsection (5) was repealed, as from 1 July 2003, by section 262 Local Government Act 2002 (2002 No 84). See sections 273 to 314 of that Act as to the savings and transitional provisions.