12 May 2026

Re: FW: INCOMING OIA2526-1176 LYNCH – former Ministers information regarding vaccine procurement

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Kia ora Philip,

Thank you for your email.this is the second reply to the same email your note it’s below this email!

I have reviewed the Prime Minister’s Office transfer letter to DIA dated 7 May 2026, ref PMO OIA 785-2025-26.

That transfer is limited. It states that Part 2 of my request was transferred to DIA only as it relates to email correspondence potentially held by DIA. It also states clearly:

“The other parts of the request have not been transferred to you.”

Accordingly, DIA is not dealing with the full original request. DIA is dealing only with the transferred component concerning email correspondence between the former Prime Minister’s Office and specified departments, agencies, and ministerial offices, where the subject concerned vaccine purchasing, indemnities, financial exposure, rollout funding, or liability.

To assist DIA and avoid refusal under section 18(f), I refine the transferred request as follows.

## Refined transferred request

Please provide email correspondence held by DIA from, to, copied to, or held on behalf of the former Prime Minister Rt Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern’s office, for the period:

1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021

where the substantive subject concerned one or more of the following:

1.. COVID-19 vaccine purchasing or procurement;

2. advance purchase agreements;

3. indemnities, liability protections, or Crown liability allocation;

4. financial exposure, fiscal risk, contingent liability, or unquantified public exposure;

5. rollout funding, appropriations, cost estimates, or funding approvals;

6. ACC treatment-injury liability, or awareness that ACC may bear effective liability;

7. public communications concerning vaccine procurement, indemnities, liability, pricing, or contractual structure.

## Parties / offices

Please limit the search to email correspondence involving the former Prime Minister’s Office and one or more of the following:

1. DPMC;

2. Treasury;

3. Ministry of Health;

4. Health New Zealand or predecessor health agencies;

5. Pharmac;

6. the Minister of Finance or that Minister’s office;

7. the Minister of Health or that Minister’s office;

8. the Minister for COVID-19 Response or that Minister’s office.

## Exclusions

To reduce collation burden, I am not seeking:

1. purely administrative scheduling emails;

2. diary invitations with no substantive content;

3. duplicate forwarding chains where the substantive email is already captured;

4. generic public health messaging not connected to procurement, indemnity, liability, fiscal exposure, funding, or contractual structure;

5. the Royal Commission report itself.

## Priority search terms

Please prioritise searches using combinations of the following terms:

– vaccine procurement;

– advance purchase agreement;

– APA;

– indemnity;

– indemnities;

– liability;

– fiscal exposure;

– contingent liability;

– financial exposure;

– ACC;

– treatment injury;

– Pfizer;

– Janssen;

– Novavax;

– AstraZeneca;

– rollout funding;

– pricing;

– supplier;

– contract;

– procurement strategy.

## Section 18(f)

If DIA still considers section 18(f) may apply, please provide reasonable assistance before any refusal by identifying:

1. the estimated number or volume of emails captured by the refined request;

2. which part of the refined request creates the alleged substantial collation issue;

3. whether the issue is caused by the date range, parties, search terms, duplication, or archived email systems;

4. whether DIA can process the request in stages;

5. whether DIA can first provide a schedule of potentially relevant emails so I may refine further by sender, recipient, date, or subject.

## Royal Commission report

I note your recommendation that I view the Royal Commission report. That report does not answer this transferred request. I am seeking primary email correspondence held by DIA following the PMO transfer. The request concerns procurement, indemnities, fiscal exposure, rollout funding, liability, and related Prime Ministerial-office communications.

Please confirm DIA now accepts this refined transferred request for processing.

Tracy Lynch

On May 12, 2026 at 5:29 PM, <F Q> wrote:

Kia ora Philip,

Thank you for your email regarding OIA2526-1176.

I do not accept at this stage that the request should be refused under section 18(f) without DIA first assisting with refinement, including identifying the classes of records held, the likely volume, and whether the request can be met by staged release or by narrowing to authoritative records.

To avoid unnecessary collation of all routine correspondence, I refine the request as follows.

Refined request

Please provide, for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2022, copies of formal or substantive records held by, sent to, sent from, or copied to the Prime Minister’s Office concerning:

1. vaccine purchasing or procurement;

2. Crown indemnities, indemnity agreements, or liability protections connected with COVID-19 vaccines;

3. financial exposure, fiscal risk, contingent liabilities, or risk allocation arising from vaccine procurement or rollout;

4. rollout funding, appropriations, Cabinet funding decisions, or cost estimates;

5. liability, adverse-event liability, compensation exposure, or Crown responsibility arising from vaccine procurement or rollout.

For the avoidance of doubt, this refined request is limited to communications or records involving one or more of the following:

1. DPMC;

2. Treasury;

3. Ministry of Health;

4. Health New Zealand or its predecessor agencies;

5. Pharmac;

6. the Minister of Finance or the Minister’s office;

7. the Minister of Health or the Minister’s office;

8. the Minister for COVID-19 Response or the Minister’s office.

Document types requested

Please limit the search to formal or substantive records, including:

1. Cabinet papers, Cabinet minutes, Cabinet committee papers, Cabinet committee minutes, or related briefings;

2. ministerial briefings, aide-mémoires, memoranda, decision papers, advice papers, and talking points;

3. records of decisions, meeting notes, or meeting minutes;

4. substantive emails or letters that record advice, approvals, risk assessments, indemnity issues, fiscal exposure, liability, or procurement decisions.

I am not seeking purely administrative emails such as meeting scheduling, diary management, acknowledgements, routing emails, or duplicated internal forwarding chains unless they contain substantive decision-making content.

Search assistance requested

If DIA still considers section 18(f) may apply, please first provide:

1. the estimated number of records or volume of material captured by the refined request;

2. which part of the request is said to cause substantial collation;

3. whether the issue is date range, number of agencies, document type, search terms, or duplication;

4. whether the request could be answered by staged release;

5. whether DIA can provide a schedule of relevant records before release decisions are made.

Please also consider whether any part of the request can be granted, even if another part requires further refinement.

Royal Commission report

I note your recommendation that I view the Royal Commission’s report. That report does not replace DIA’s obligations under the Official Information Act. My request is for primary records held by or involving the Prime Minister’s Office concerning procurement, indemnity, fiscal exposure, rollout funding, and liability.

Please confirm that the request is now accepted in refined form. If DIA proposes any further narrowing, please identify the specific practical barrier and provide a proposed wording that would allow the request to proceed without refusal.

Tracy Lynch

On May 11, 2026 at 2:00 PM, <MaSS info> wrote:

Kia Ora

We are writing regarding your OIA request for:

Please provide all communications, including emails, letters, meeting notes, or records of calls, between the Prime Minister’s Office and:

1. DPMC;

2. Treasury;

3. Ministry of Health;

4. Health New Zealand;

5. Pharmac;

6. the Minister of Finance;

7. the Minister of Health;

8. the Minister for COVID-19 Response,

where the subject concerned vaccine purchasing, indemnities, financial exposure, rollout funding, or liability.

It is likely that, as the request stands, it wil be refused under section 18(f) of the act, on the grounds of substantial collation. We would invite you to consider refining your request.

I would also recommend that you view the Royal Commission’s report here: Home | Covid-19 Lessons Learned

Regards

Philip