56466 (2024). Francisco Hernandez to the Prime Minister

56466 (2024). Francisco Hernandez to the Prime Minister: What briefings, advice, aide memoires, emails, text messages, memorandums and any other form of communication, broken down by title and date, did the minister, or their departments, if any, send or receive to the Minister of Finance or Minister for Public Services as part of proposing 'savings' as part of the 'baseline savings exercise'?

Rt Hon Christopher Luxon: In my capacity as the Prime Minister, I am the Responsible Minister for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), and Vote Minister for Prime Minister and Cabinet. In my capacity as the Prime Minister, I have provided no formal briefing documents to the Minister of Finance or to the Minister for the Public Service relating to the Fiscal Sustainability Programme in relation to Vote Prime Minister and Cabinet. Outlined below are the dates of my formal correspondence with the Minister of Finance relating to the Fiscal Sustainability Programme for Vote Prime Minister and Cabinet, and one email between my office and the office of the Minister of Finance. No correspondence was exchanged with the Minister for the Public Service: • Letter from the Minister of Finance to the Prime Minister, 21 December 2023 • Letter from the Minister of Finance to the Prime Minister, 25 January 2024 • Letter from the Prime Minister to the Minister of Finance, not dated (13 February 2024) • Letter from the Minister of Finance to the Prime Minister, 15 February 2024 • Letter from the Prime Minister to the Minister of Finance, not dated (16 February 2024) • Letter from the Minister of Finance to the Prime Minister, 15 April 2024 • Email from the office of the Minister of Finance to the Prime Minister’s office 13 April 2024. In addition, staff in my office may informally receive documents including draft documents and receive test messages and emails from my officials in DPMC and from other agencies, and from Ministers’ offices. This information is not held in a format that can be easily extracted within the time frame. I am advised that officials in DPMC have not provided formal briefing documents to the Minister of Finance or the Minister for the Public Service or exchanged formal correspondence. I am advised that any relevant informal correspondence is not held in a format that can be easily extracted within the time frame. I am advised that Budget 24 material is available on the following website: Budget 2024 - 30 May 2024