More than 1600 alcohol sellers – including bottle stores, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets – haven't been counted in national figures, a health advocacy group warns.
Public Health Communication Centre fears the inaccurate reporting of suppliers impacts the country's response to alcohol harm.
New information released by the centre has found national data is 13% short on the actual number of on-licences that exist, which includes restaurants, bars and pubs.
It is also 15% short on off-licences, which includes bottle stores and supermarkets.
Alcohol Healthwatch senior health promotion advisor Sarah Sneyd said it was important to get the data right considering alcohol harm was estimated to cost $9 billion annually.
"Several researchers prominent in this space have already told me that they will not do any future work on alcohol availability in New Zealand because the data is just too poor to get quality findings," Sneyd said.
According to the Public Health Communication Centre, the most recent sets of figures show 1097 on-licence venues have been unaccounted for nationally, while 587 off-licences are also missing.
The inaccuracies meant patterns of availability could not be reliably tracked, and resources could not be targeted towards the areas of greatest need, the centre said.
National data is held by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority — an independent tribunal supported by the Ministry of Justice — which gets its information from councils' district licensing committees.
The licensing authority's register is hosted on the Ministry of Justice's website and updated quarterly.
Courts and tribunals group manager Jacquelyn Shannon said discrepancies between the authority's register and district licensing committee information was generally because of differing business processes relating to information updates.
Public Health Communication Centre said the licensing authority's data is the only national source of licence numbers, conditions and locations.
The group's concerns ring true in Southland where only 80 percent of alcohol providers have been included in the national data.
Invercargill City Council’s reporting area was home to 76 on-licences and 26 off-licences, but the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority had a record of 67 and 22 respectively.
For Southland District Council, there were 100 on-licences and 43 off-licences; the licensing authority recorded 89 and 33 respectively.
Gore District Council was home to nine on-licences and 12 off-licences; the authority recorded zero and one respectively.
Alcohol Healthwatch believed the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority’s data was poor because it was not being supplied with what was required.
Council staff were "absolutely swamped", and data reporting was sometimes the first task to go, Sneyd said.
Invercargill City Council group manager consenting and environment Jonathan Shaw said discrepancies were likely due to differences in reporting cycles and frequency of updates.
Shaw said a more up-to-date record of 74 on-licences and 27 off-licences had been provided to the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority, and the council would monitor the register to ensure accuracy.
A spokesperson for Southland District Council said the underreporting could be due to different factors including differences in the timing of licensing authority and council processes.
Council updates were not always included in the national register correctly or immediately due to delays and errors, they said.
Gore District Council general manager operations David Bainbridge-Zafar said the council took its Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority reporting responsibilities seriously.
The council was unable to comment on discrepancies because it had no information or knowledge of the authority’s processes, he said.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
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