Director of Health Ashley Bloomfield has pushed back on claims by National leader Simon Bridges around attempting to control information.
Dr Bloomfield wrote to Mr Bridges, saying there were no outstanding responses to the Covid-19 select committee's questions when he appeared and was questioned over the issue last Wednesday.
Last week, Mr Bridges accused Dr Bloomfield of attempting to control information flow .
"Here’s the point, the Government suspended the OIA (Official Information Act) and we’ve been waiting over two weeks for your department to answer written questions," Mr Bridges said at the time.
"I think it comes down to one simple thing. You don’t want to answer because you want to control the information flow and do this in a time and a way convenient to you and the Government."
A letter was released by the Minister of Health addressed to Mr Bridges, written by Dr Bloomfield on May 7.
"On May 6, after your questions at the Epidemic Response Committee (ERC), I undertook to check the timeliness of responses provided by the Ministry of Health to questions from the Committee.
"I have been advised when I most recently appeared in front of the ERC there were no outstanding responses.
"During the hearing it was suggested that the Government has suspended the Official Information Act (OIA) and the ERC has made multiple requests for information from the Ministry that it is waiting for."
The OIA has not been suspended, however it was revealed by Newsroom officials made a suggestion, that wasn't taken up, that the act be suspended during the Alert Level 4 lockdown period.
"Every effort is being made to ensure people receive information as soon as it can be reasonably provided," Dr Bloomfield wrote.
Today, Mr Bridges said the average time for their written questions to be answered, "often very simple questions", was between two and two-and-a-half weeks.
"Some cases much longer. In fact on the eve of the committee we received answers we hadn't seen, through no fault because they were literally on the eve.
Mr Bridges said responses to the questions the committee had asked the Ministry of Health "have consistently been weeks".
"I don't think that's good enough. I think we had a right as Parliament to get good timely answers and that certainly did not happen."
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