Documents

Providing records to the Royal Commission

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

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

The Crown is legally required to provide information formally requested by the Royal Commission – under Section 20 of the Inquiries Act 2013.The Royal Commission makes requests of the Crown for historical records that it needs for the different investigations it has under way. The requests vary widely in scale, from a few documents held by a single agency to thousands of documents across many organisations.

The Crown also provides other information to the Royal Commission that may assist its work.

For example, the Crown Response Unit compiled a State care Timeline(external link) for the Royal Commission, which summarises the main institutional and legislative care changes since early last century.

Locating records

The Crown’s records on state care go back to the colonial era and comprise many thousands of documents in hard-copy and electronic form. They include information on policies and procedures, reports, Cabinet papers, data, institutional records and personal case files.

Records are held in numerous locations by:

• Archives New Zealand
• government agencies
• Crown entities such as schools and district health boards
• non-government organisations that provided care on behalf of the Crown.

Many of the relevant records are now very old, and there were variable and sometimes inadequate record-keeping and archiving practices among the many organisations that hold (or held) them. There were also different legislative requirements for archiving and destroying records. Agencies are now required under the Public Records Act 2005 to create, maintain and dispose of records in ways that meet the Act’s provisions.

The older hard-copy documents are usually converted into digital form, generally by Archives New Zealand – the digital versions are direct duplicates produced with specialist software and guaranteed authenticity, rather than simple scans. The digitised documents are then provided to the Royal Commission in a secure electronic storage format.

This short video explains how Archives New Zealand provides the Royal Commission with the information it requests from agencies: 

• standard version of the video(external link)(external link)
• accessible version of the video(external link)(external link)

Responses to the Royal Commission's information requests are coordinated by the Crown Response Unit. The Unit helps ensure that government agencies provide information in a consistent way, and on time, and it helps agencies compile their responses. It also helps identify information that the Royal Commission might need, and helps the Royal Commission find the agency holding the information they seek.

A high-level picture of agency records relevant to the Abuse in Care Royal Commission - Overview of agencies' records

Privacy of the individual

Some documents include personal details. To protect the privacy of the personal information it receives, the Royal Commission has issued a general order under Section 15 of the Inquiries Act that prevents publication of personal or identifying information that it holds without the Royal Commission’s permission. The Royal Commission shares the Crown’s commitment to protecting people’s privacy throughout its proceedings. For more on this, go to this link(external link)(external link) on the Royal Commission website (see document “Redress hearing information and FAQs”).

A person can retain the right to see their personal information held by government agencies, including personal information provided to the Royal Commission.

A request for personal information would be assessed in the usual way under the Privacy Act and the Official Information Act, if relevant. This page(external link)(external link) on the Privacy Commission website advises how to request personal information. Agencies can also be contacted directly(external link) to request your personal information.

State care timeline

“State care” covers situations where the State has assumed responsibility, either directly or indirectly, for the care of an individual.

State care settings may be residential or non-residential, and voluntary or non-voluntary. Examples include social welfare and youth justice residences, psychiatric hospitals, schools, and Police or Court cells.

The Royal Commission’s terms of reference(external link) (clause 17.3) sets out full details of situations where “state care” applies, or does not apply, for the purposes of the Inquiry.

To help the Royal Commission understand the many changes to state care over the years, government agencies jointly prepared a timeline that sets out reports, changes to legislation and institutions across the welfare, justice, education and health sectors

State care timeline