Survey of public sector information management 2022
Public sector organisations are stewards of information about New Zealanders. Effective management of this information is critical for them to maintain their social licence.
Information management practices include acquisition, custodianship, distribution, and disposal through archiving or deletion. The maturity of an organisation’s information management strategy provides an indication of their ability to protect their information in times of business change (information is often exposed to greater risks when an organisation is undergoing change). In the last few years, many public sector organisations have had to make business changes in response to COVID-19. The annual Survey of public sector information management is a key regulatory tool for assuring public sector information is well-managed. The following key indicators provide a high-level perspective on whether information management is improving, declining, or remaining stable.
The full survey results provide more comprehensive data on the performance of public sector organisations.
These results are reported on data.govt.nz.
Findings report - Survey of public sector information management 2021/22 (PDF, 4MB)
Summary - Survey of public sector information management 2021/22 (PDF, 666KB)
Information Management Governance Groups
Static
Governance groups are foundations for elevating the importance of information management and integrating it into business operations. A lack of governance often indicates poor organisational performance in this area.
61% of responding organisations had formal governance groups for information management.
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Detailed description of Graph 1
This proportional diagram shows the percentage increase in the establishment of Information Management Governance Groups. Sixty percent of organisations had a formal governance group established in 2020/21, we can see an increase to 61% in 2021/22. In 2020/21 we see 40% of organisations had no formal governance group and a decrease to 39% by 2021/22.
Information Management Staff
Improving
The most common response among responding organisations was having either one or less than one staff member dedicated to information management. Particularly, organisations with fewer than 100 full-time employees commonly have no information management staff. Although not as pronounced as smaller organisations, larger organisation still have limited IM staff in respect to their size.
Survey data shows an increase in the number of IM staff in responding public sector organisations.
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Detailed description of Graph 2
This proportional area chart shows the amount of information management staff working within an organisation compared with its overall number of full-time equivalentstaff.
Within organisations with less than 100 full time employees 33 have no information management specialists, 26 have 1-3 information management specialists and 1 organisation has more than 4.
Organisations with between 100-2,999 full time employees – 15 organisations have no information management specialists; 66 organisations have between 1 and 3 information management specialists and 50 have more than 4 information management staff.
Organisations with 3,000 or more full time employees – 0 organisation does not have an information management specialist; 3 organisations have between 1 and 3 information management specialists and 15 have more than 4 information management specialists employed.
Identification of high-value and/or high-risk information
Static
Identifying high-value/high-risk information is a foundation for other information management activities. It is a critical first step towards mitigating associated risks and extracting maximum value from information assets.
High-value and/or high-risk information identified has remained almost static in the last three years, but since 2019/20 there has been an 8 percentage-point decrease in unidentified information.
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Detailed description of Graph 3
This pie chart shows the comparison between 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 of the identification of high-value or high-risk information to an organisation.
In the 2019/20 time period there were 36% of organisations that have identified information of high-value/high-risk, 43% are in progress of identification, 18% have not identified information of high-value/high-risk and 3% do not know. Over the 2020/21 time period there were 35% of organisations that have identified information of high-value/high-risk, 49% are in progress of identification, 13% have not identified information of high-value/high-risk and 3% do not know. Over the 2021/22 time period there were 36% of organisations that have identified information of high-value/high-risk, 51% are in progress of identification, 10% have not identified information of high-value/high-risk and 3% do not know.
Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles of partnership, participation and protection underpin the relationship between the Government and Māori.
Many public sector organisations create and hold information important to whānau, hapū and iwi.
In the last year there has been an improvement in organisations’ progress to identify records with te ao Māori value.
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Detailed description of graph 4
The horizontal stacked bar graph shows the comparison between 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 around information management built into organisation’s new business systems. In the 2019/20 time period, there were 50% of organisations that had information management built into the organisation’s systems, 29% of organisations did not have information management built into systems and 11% do not know.
In the 2020/21 time period, there were 52% of organisations that had information management built into the organisation’s systems, 34% of organisations did not have information management built into systems and 14% do not know. In the 2021/22 time period, there were 60% of organisations that had information management built into the organisation’s systems, 29% of organisations did not have information management built into systems and 11% do not know.
Building information management requirements into new business systems
Improving
Building information management requirements into a business system from the beginning enables proper management of the information created and stored in that system.
Over half of responding organisations had built information management requirements into their business systems.
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Detailed description of graph 5
This vertical bar graph shows the comparison between 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 around organisations identifying records with Te Ao Māori value. In the 2019/20 time period, 39% of organisations have identified records with Te Ao Māori value. In the 2020/21 time period, 35% % of organisations have identified records with Te Ao Māori value. In the 2021/22 time period, 39% of organisations have identified records with Te Ao Māori value. In the 2020/21 time period.
Above represents a steady incline over the last three years.
Active, authorised destruction of information
Static
A large proportion of the information an organisation creates does not have long-term value for the organisation or New Zealanders. Active, authorised destruction of information helps mitigate the risk associated with retaining it for longer than required.
There has been a minor increase in responding organisations’ authorised destruction of physical and/or digital information.
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Detailed description of graph 6
This vertical bar graph shows the comparison between 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 around active, authorised destruction of information. In the 2018/29 time period, 63% of organisations have completed authorised destruction. In the 2019/20 time period, 58% of organisations have completed authorised destruction. In the 2020/21 time period, 56% of organisations have completed authorised destruction. In the 2021/22 time period, 57% of organisations have completed authorised destruction.