Disclosure statements

What are disclosure statements?

Disclosure statements are departmental documents that provide information about the development and content of legislation proposed by the Government. They seek to assist the Parliamentary and public scrutiny of a Bill or Amendment Paper (AP).

Amendment Papers were called Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) before 8 December 2023. See Supplementary Order Papers become Amendment Papers for more information. On this website, disclosure statements for APs and SOPs are under separate tabs.

Disclosure statements are published on this website during an administrative trial period. Legislation is being developed to implement the disclosure regime, and the results of the trial will feed into this legislation.

Generally, disclosure statements should identify:

• the policy objectives of the Bill or AP
• some of the key processes that departments are expected to have followed during the development and testing of the content of the Bill or AP
• certain significant powers or unusual features in the Bill or AP that may be of particular Parliamentary or public interest and may warrant further explanation.

Disclosure statements are provided on this website for all government Bills (with limited exceptions) and substantive APs (and SOPs) introduced or released since 29 July 2013. See the Treasury's guidance Disclosure Statements for Government Legislation: Technical Guide for Departments for more information on which Bills and APs require a disclosure statement.

How do I find a disclosure statement?

Find it by using the appropriate Bills, APs, or SOPs tab at the top of this page. Remember that a Bill can be amended via an AP (or SOP) as it progresses through the House, so check under the AP (or SOP) tab to find out whether an amended or supplementary version of the original Bill's disclosure statement has been published.

You will also find a link to the disclosure statement from the explanatory note of the related Bill or AP on the New Zealand Legislation website.

Who provides disclosure statements?

Disclosure statements are prepared by the government department that is responsible for developing the Bill or AP. Departments are responsible for the content of the statements.

This website is owned and provided by the Parliamentary Counsel Office, whose role is limited to publishing the disclosure statements.

More about disclosure statements

See Cabinet Office Circular CO (13) 3 for more about Cabinet’s disclosure requirements.

See Departmental disclosure statements on the Treasury website for background. The Technical Guide provides guidance and templates for departments preparing a disclosure statement.