Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
DX SX10088 | Wel ington
T 04 918 8800 |
F 04 918 8820
[email address] | www.justice.govt.nz
13 September 2022
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #19936 email]
Our ref: OIA 98430
Tēnā koe Erika
Official Information Act request: Collection of fines
Thank you for your email of 16 August 2022, following up on our 11 August 2022 response
to your previous request. In our previous response you were informed that the Ministry of
Justice does not hold separate data on the costs of collecting WorkSafe fines where the
infringement has been transferred to the courts and nor is any specific budget allocated to
this work.
Under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (the Act), you have now asked:
1)
Are you saying that the DoJ does not track the category of fines it follows up on
and takes to court? And that there is no reporting on which fines are followed
up on according to category? Eg traffic fines, C19 breaches?
2)
Does that mean you just have a big slush fund to chase fines? Kindly share this
amount please as per my OIA and I wil assume some of it is used to chase
C19 breach fines,
The court collects infringement fines (such as Police speeding fines or council parking
fines), court-imposed fines (fines ordered as part of a sentence in a criminal case) and
reparation (money ordered to be paid to victim(s) as part of a sentence in a criminal case).
When a fine or reparation is imposed the court wil , in the first instance, seek payment in
full or negotiate sustainable payment arrangements where possible. If required, the steps
taken to collect payment of overdue amounts can include:
• clamping vehicles,
• seizing and selling property,
• making compulsory deductions from a person’s income or bank account,
• issuing warrants to arrest,
• suspending drivers’ licences, and
• preventing a person’s international travel.
The Ministry does record and maintain reporting on the status of fines under collections.
We are currently working to provide you with information held by the Ministry regarding
COVID-19 offences and related fines. However, we require more time to finalise the
information for release. The information wil be provided to you as soon as it is ready and
without undue delay.
As noted in our previous response, the Ministry does record the costs of individual aspects
of the fines collection process. Therefore, I cannot provide information on the cost of
specific aspects of the process for collecting fines, either generally, or for COVID-19-
related fines.
In response to the second part of your request, for the 2022/23 financial year, the courts
have been al ocated a total of $55.2 mil ion to fund the collection and enforcement of fines
and civil debt services. The process for collecting a COVID-19-related fine is the same as
for collecting any other fine and it is carried out as part of the routine work of the courts.
No separate budget has been allocated for the col ection of COVID-19 offence-related
fines – that work is funded from the budget of $55.2 million. Therefore, your request for
information on the budget allocated to collecting COVID-19-related fines, is being refused
under section 18(e) of the Act on the grounds that the information does not exist.
If you are not satisfied with my response, you have the right to complain to the
Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. The Ombudsman may be contacted by email
at [email address].
Nāku noa, nā
Tracey Baguley
Group Manager, National Service Delivery