How the Crown provided records to the Royal Commission

The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry had two primary information sources:

the testimony of survivors and others involved in State and faith-based care
records held by the Crown, churches and other organisations.

In 2018 a Crown response secretariat was established to coordinate multiple agencies to engage with and respond to the Royal Commission. The secretariat:

identified the agency holding the information
ensured they provide information on time and in a consistent way
helped agencies compile their responses
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:

Last modified: 7 July 2025