Statistics on Official Information Act 1982 requests to government agencies in the six months to 30 June 2019 show that agencies responded to 97.4% of requests on time.

The State Services Commission has released the data, which covers 111 agencies that collectively completed 18,390 information requests over the period.

The 17,914 responses on time - 97.4% - compared with 95% of requests answered on time in the July to December 2018 period.

The SSC says that since it started collecting OIA data in 2015/16, the number of OIA requests completed within the legislated timeframe has improved from 87.6%.

It says agencies are increasingly publishing information, such as Cabinet papers, before it is requested. More agencies are also releasing their OIA responses publicly.

Of the 111 agencies, 47 have published OIA responses on their websites.  In total, 1654 OIA responses were published during the six months, a 45% increase on the previous period (1138 during the first half of 2017/18).