Briefings to new justice-related ministers following the 2017 General Election have been publicly released.
The Briefing to the Incoming Minister (BIM) reports are formal documents that government agencies provide to new ministers when they take up a portfolio. The reports are a key part of a briefing process which also includes meetings and other communications, taking place over several weeks.
The BIMs help give the new minister an overview of the portfolio, what their responsibilities are and what the agency does.
While BIMS for particular portfolios, such as health, housing and social development, reveal some challenges for the new government, the justice-related ones focus primarily on the role and the services the ministry provides.
“While the documents contain a huge amount of information, we considered this to be a better approach than releasing BIMs one by one over time, which has happened in the past. It gets everything out in the open at the same time,” says State Services Minister Chris Hipkins.
The Ministry of Justice has provided four BIMs to the Ministers responsible for the following portfolios:
- Justice and Courts BIM [PDF, 1 MB]: Andrew Little, Minister of Justice, Courts and Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and William Sio, Associate Minister of Justice and Courts
- Treaty Negotiations BIM [PDF, 929 KB]: Andrew Little, Minister of Justice, Courts and Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations.
- Attorney-General BIM [PDF, 1015 KB]: David Parker, Attorney-General.
- Crown/Māori Relations BIM [PDF, 1.3 MB]: Kelvin Davis, Minister for Crown-Māori Relations and Meka Whaitiri, Associate Minister for Crown-Māori Relations.