Keith Petrie communications

5 July 2019

[Name and contact details redacted]

Dear [Name redacted]

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

Thank you for your request dated 24 May 2019 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information relating to communications between Keith Petrie, Kate MacKrill and PHARMAC since August 2018.  We emailed you on 21 June 2019, to extend the timeframe for response to 8 July 2019. You asked for all communications in writing, orally or any other means.

Please note that the information you requested on 13 November 2018 covered all communications, both written and oral, up to and including the date of your request.

The following table sets out oral communications from 13 November 2018 to the 24 May 2019. These communications are all between PHARMAC and Keith Petrie, unless otherwise specified.

Please find attached [PDF, 751 KB] all written communications with Keith Petrie or Kate MacKrill from 13 November 2018 to the 24 May 2019.

Please note that PHARMAC approaches its assessment of requests for information under the OIA on the basis that, once released, the information becomes publicly available - in other words once we release the information to you it becomes available to any other party in that exact form (whether by you distributing it to others or by virtue of us receiving the same request from a different third party). 

We have redacted certain information from the attached communications as we consider this is necessary to:

• protect the privacy of natural persons (section 9(2)(a) of the OIA);

• protect information which is subject to an obligation of confidence or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment, where the making available of the information would be likely to prejudice the supply of similar information, or information from the same source, and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied (section 9(2)(ba)(i)); and

• enable PHARMAC to carry on, without prejudice or disadvantage, negotiations, including commercial negotiations (section 9(2)(j)).

Please note that information has also been redacted where that information is outside the scope of the request.

As required under the OIA, we also considered whether, in the circumstances, the withholding of this information was outweighed by other considerations which render it desirable, in the public interest, to make this information available.  In this case we did not consider that the public interest outweighed the reasons for withholding the information.

We trust that the provision of the information answers your queries, if you have any further questions please feel free to contact us again.

Please note you have the right, by way of complaint under section 28(3) of the OIA to an Ombudsman, to seek an investigation and review of our decision.

We are making our information more freely available, so we will now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website.  Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this.

Yours sincerely

[Alison Hill's signature]

Alison Hill
Director, Engagement and Implementation