5183 (2026). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister for the Environment

5183 (2026). Francisco Hernandez to the Minister for the Environment: What is the current level of compliance, if any, within the Minister’s departments, agencies, crown entities and any other bodies that the Minister is responsible for, if any, with NZ Government Web Standards, which require public sector websites to be accessible?

Hon Penny Simmonds: Ministry for the Environment The Ministry for the Environment is actively engaged in the Department of Internal Affairs' Centralised Web Accessibility Checker programme (CWAC) and is committed to achieving total accessibility across its web platforms by 2030. The Ministry has 12 web platforms that are included under the CWAC scheme. The Ministry's two primary public-facing platforms (environment.govt.nz and Have Your Say, the Ministry's public consultation website) have CWAC scores of 8 and 1 respectively (CWAC scores are rated out of 100, with lower numbers showing greater accessibility). Across all of its web platforms, the Ministry has an average rating of 59, which denotes that several of its smaller platforms require further accessibility work, much of which will be undertaken in the new financial year. Environmental Protection Authority As a Crown agent, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is not formally mandated to comply with the New Zealand Government Web Accessibility Standards. However, it recognises the standards as good practice and seeks to meet them wherever possible. The EPA follows the NZ Government Web Accessibility Standard 1.2 and NZ Government Web Usability Standard 1.4 as specified on digital.govt.nz, operated by the Department of Internal Affairs. It aims for websites (EPA and Fast-track) to be accessible and easy to understand. Websites operated by the EPA host a variety of documents provided by third parties, such as application documents or consultation submissions. While these may not always meet the standards they support availability of information.