6 Confidentiality of data
The content of responses to Gazette notices provided will be subject to public release under the Official Information Act 1982 following requests to the Ministry.
Generally there is a need for the industrial allocation process to be as transparent as possible, however, the Government recognises the need for this to be balanced against commercial confidentiality concerns. Respondents to Gazette notices should therefore note whether there is any objection to the release of any information contained in their response, and, in particular, the part(s) that should be withheld, together with the reason(s) for withholding the information. This will allow the Ministry to take into account such objections when responding to requests for information under the Official Information Act 1982.
It will be necessary for the Government to publish eligibility results following the consideration of data submitted under Gazette notices. This is likely to be expressed in terms of a number of tonnes of emissions per million dollars of revenue. It is possible that these results could be expressed as a range of figures where legitimate concerns about commercial confidentiality exist.
Note that once regulations are in place for an activity and firms submit production data in order to receive an allocation, the default position in the Act is that allocation amounts to individual firms are to be published. However, the Act does allow this information to be withheld if the Chief Executive of the Ministry for the Environment considers that publishing this information would be likely to unreasonably prejudice the commercial position of the eligible person who received the allocation.
