MINISTRY OF
JUSTICE
LA 04010003
12 January 2004
Katherine Rich MP
PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS
Dear Ms Rich
OFFICIAL INFORMATION REQUEST -
CHRISTCHURCH CIVIC CRECHE CASE
I refer to your letter of 23 June 2003 requesting information under the
Official Information Act 1982 relating to Mr Peter Ellis and the Christchurch
Civic Creche case.
Following our response to your request you asked the Office of the Ombudsmen to
investigate and review our decision to withhold certain information. In
particular, you were concerned about our decision to withhold one sentence from
"Document C28" (which consisted of a memorandum for Cabinet, a
related covering letter and Cabinet Policy Committee decision from March 2000
and Ministry of Justice advice to the Minister of Justice on the issues dated 1
March 2000).
We have corresponded with the Office of the Ombudsmen on this issue and have
now decided to release the information in question to you. A complete copy of
page 5 of the Ministry advice to the Minister (from which the information in
question was withheld) is accordingly enclosed.
It might be helpful if I set out the Ministry's original concerns about the
release of the sentence in question. The Ministry withheld this information due
to concerns that because of the particularly free and frank nature of the
sentence it might be misconstrued, The sentence in question was intended to
convey in a very dear manner the limitations that arise from the nature of the
case i.e. the considerable period of time that had passed since the events at
the creche took place (particularly in relation to children who were very young
at the time) and the polarised views of the people involved. However, given its
particularly free and frank nature this bald statement of fact might be
interpreted as suggesting that such limitations arise from inquiries of this
nature rather than from the specific circumstances of the Ellis case.
Accordingly, this sentence should not be taken as meaning anything more than
acknowledging the difficulties of reviewing the type of evidence given in a
case like this once considerable period of time has past since the events
giving rise to the proceedings.
Yours sincerely
Val Sim
Chief Legal Counsel