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The Crown Response Unit was established in 2018 to coordinate the Government’s response to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry.(external link)(external link)
The Royal Commission was established in 2018 to investigate children, young people, and vulnerable adults’ experiences of abuse and neglect in State and non-State care in Aotearoa New Zealand between the years of 1950-1999.
The Royal Commission ended on 25 June 2024. Our work programme focuses on responding to:
If you would like to stay up to date on our work programme, please email: contact@abuseinquiryresponse.govt.nz with 'Pānui' in the email subject line.
The Crown Response Unit is working through the recommendations in the Royal Commissions' final report, Whanaketia - Through Pain and trauma, from darkness to light(external link), published on 24 July 2024.
In the meantime, our response to the Royal Commission’s He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu from Redress to Puretumu Torowhānui(external link), published in December 2021 has focused on: .(external link).
Consideration of civil litigation settings (including both limitation and ACC bars) is led by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (as the agency responsible for ACC policy).
A survivor-led Redress Design Group and Advisory Group produced high-level design proposals for a new redress system. These were presented to the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions, Minister Erica Stanford.
The high-level proposals cover:
Redress options are being developed for further consideration before final decisions are made on the detailed work required to improve redress to survivors of abuse in care.
This work has the oversight of a Ministerial Group established in April 2024 and made up of Ministers whose work relates to the care and redress systems. The March 2024 proactively released Cabinet paper [PDF, 1022 KB] refers to the establishment of the Ministerial Group.
Cabinet will make a number of decisions to progress this complex work.
As recommended in the Royal Commission’s 2021 redress report He Purapura Ora, he Māra Tipu. From Redress to Puretumu Torowhānui(external link) the Government has been working on four projects while work on a improving redress for survivors of abuse in care is underway.
These four projects have either been completed or are still underway:
Rapid payments are being run by four existing claims agencies:
(external link)(external link)
Find out more: Historic claims agency details
In response to the Royal Commission’s recommendation to provide an avenue for survivors to share their experiences of abuse in care the Government established the Survivor Experiences Service(external link)(external link).
The service is housed within Te Tari Taiwhenua – Department of Internal Affairs and is guided by an independent Board to provide a safe, supportive, confidential place for survivors of abuse in care, and their whānau, to share their experiences. The Survivor Experiences Service can also help survivors request, receive and understand their care records.
To contact the Survivor Experiences Service:
Visit Home | Survivor Experiences Service(external link)(external link) for more information.
The Royal Commission found that many survivors had difficulty accessing their records. The issues included lengthy delays; or getting incomplete or heavily redacted information.
The Crown Response Unit and Archives New Zealand are working together on five initiatives to make it easier for survivors of abuse to access their personal records while they were in care. Initiatives 1-3 are led by the Crown Response Unit and 4-5 by Archives New Zealand.
The principles are on how agencies and non-state organisations could:
Shared redaction guidance [PDF, 206 KB] has been developed for agencies and non-State organisations to improve consistency when making redactions to records to be provided to individuals. The goal is to improve a person’s access to their own information, while being clear when information has been redacted to protect other’s privacy.
Online information has also been developed(external link) explaining the records and redactions process.
Organisations that have already indicated their intention to use the shared redaction guidance include:
Setting up a central website for survivors, care-experienced people, their whānau and support people that would provide:
The website would not provide direct access to the records themselves and would not contain people’s personal records.
The Survivor Experiences Service can now help survivors request, receive and understand their care records. Visit the Survivor Experiences Service(external link) for information.
Archives NZ has published the scope and definition of care records to help the government and other organisations know which records are valuable for those in care and should be protected until a wider decision is made about:
You can find the scope and definition here: The care records definition(external link) (archives.govt.nz)
The Chief Archivist has issued a temporary care records protection instruction(external link) to protect care records while work is undertaken to review the retention and disposal of State care records.
This replaces the previous broad disposal moratorium aimed at protecting records for the Abuse in Care Royal Commission's investigations.
The instruction:
This action will not impact your ability to access your own records. As a member of the public, you can continue to request your own records by approaching the relevant government agency.
This work involves increasing cataloguing and indexing of care records already held at Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand(external link) so records holders can find personal information more easily when someone asks for it.
The Royal Commission recommended the Crown and relevant faith-based organisations should publicly acknowledge and apologise for the tūkino, or abuse, inflicted and suffered after it delivered its final report.
The Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will publicly apologise to survivors of abuse in care on Tuesday 12 November 2024 in Parliament. Find out more details here.
Details of livestream and programme overview.
Responses from faith-based insitutions to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry is below:
Salvation Army acknowledges Royal Commission report | The Salvation Army(external link)
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand(external link)
Presbyterian Support Southland(external link)
Anglican Church in Aotearoa and Polynesia(external link)
The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry had two primary information sources:
As part of our work, we coordinated responses to the Royal Commission's information requests on behalf of the Crown.
We identified the agency holding the information and ensured they provide information on time and in a consistent way. We helped agencies compile their responses and identified information the Commission needed.
The Royal Commission requested from the Crown historical records it needed for its different investigations. The requests varied widely in scale, from a few documents held by a single agency to thousands of documents across many organisations.
Archives New Zealand also provided the Royal Commission with older records:
