Justice wins 2017 best policy advice prize
Ministry of Justice policy analysts have won the top prize from a major independent consultancy firm that ranks government agencies on the quality of their policy advice.
The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) 2017 quality bench marking review attracted entries from 17 government ministries and agencies.
Justice entries included briefing papers, cabinet papers and aides-memoire. A third were from the Office of Treaty Settlements (OTS).
Each paper was marked by NZIER on customer focus, credible and robust analysis, and clear and concise presentation. Out of all the agencies the Ministry of Justice achieved the highest score.
'It’s been a few years since we last won,' says Ruth Fairhall, Acting Deputy Secretary, Policy. 'We’re very, very pleased. It’s especially impressive as we’ve been so busy this year writing over 550 papers - our policy people are just fantastic and their advice is very good.'
Gordon Smith, Operations Manager for OTS says: 'OTS had to produce 704 papers this year covering all aspects of the negotiation processes. We must work to a high quality and at high speed to get the work out of the gate. It just shows that our quality assurance is very robust.'
The Ministry’s policy advice shapes a wide range of initiatives to reduce crime, modernise the justice system, and uphold New Zealand’s constitution.