People granted final name suppression for criminal charges in New Zealand

This data counts a person once per financial year for their most serious offence, where final name suppression was granted.

Name suppression: A person’s name and any details that may identify them cannot be published (section 200 Criminal Procedure Act 2011).
Name suppression is available in the following situations:
- for victims and defendants (the person being charged) in specific sexual cases - to protect the victim (rather than the defendant)
- for children under 17 who are complainants or witnesses in criminal proceedings
- as provided in any statute – for example, section 438 of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 restricts publication of any proceedings of the Youth Court except with the permission of the court
- for defendants and any other people connected to proceedings (for example, witnesses, victims), at the discretion of the court, subject to certain considerations.
The court may make an order for name suppression only if it is satisfied that publishing the defendant’s name would be likely to:
- cause extreme hardship to the person being charged or people connected with them (for example, their family)
- cast suspicion on another person that may cause them undue hardship (note that the fact that a person is well known does not automatically mean that publication of their name will result in extreme hardship)
- cause undue hardship to the victim(s)
- create a real risk of prejudicing a fair trial
- endanger any person’s safety
- lead to the identification of another person who has name suppression
- prejudice the maintenance of the law or the security or defence of New Zealand.

Final name suppression: When a person first appears in court an interim suppression order can be made. This expires at the person's next court appearance and may only be renewed if the court is satisfied that the reason(s) for suppression still apply. At the end of the case, a final name suppression order can be made. The court must take into account any views of a victim.
In some instances automatic name suppression is applied to protect the victim. This relates to specific sexual offences where the person is accused or convicted of offences under section 130 (Incest) and 131 (Sexual conduct with dependent family member) of the Crimes Act 1961.
People charged per year: A person is counted once per year. When a person has more than one charge (with an outcome where final suppression was granted) in a year the details of the most serious offence are included in the statistics.
People convicted per year: A person is counted once per year. When a person is convicted of more than one offence (where final suppression was granted) in a year the details of the most serious offence are included in the statistics.
Most serious offence: A range of information is used to determine which charge is a person's most serious in a year. This includes information such as charge outcome, sentence type, sentence length/amount, remands in custody and bail and maximum offence penalties.
Charge outcome: The outcome of a prosecution - whether a person is convicted or not. Proved outcomes (where a person is found to be, or pleads, guilty) include:
- Convicted
- Other proved (Youth Court proved (s283 order), Discharge without conviction and Adult diversion/Youth Court discharge).
- 'Not proved' include being acquitted and where the charge is withdrawn or dismissed.
- 'Other outcomes' include being found not guilty by reason of insanity or unfit to stand trial.
Sentence: A person may receive more than one type of sentence when convicted of a charge. The most serious sentence is used in these tables. Sentences include (in order of seriousness):
- Imprisonment (includes Life imprisonment, Preventive detention and Imprisonment)
- Community sentences (Home detention, Community detention, Intensive supervision, Community work, Supervision)
- Monetary (includes Reparation, Fine and Order for restitution of property)
- Deferment (which includes To come up for sentence if called upon)
- Other (includes orders related to driving (eg Disqualification from driving, Alcohol interlock order, Zero alcohol order), orders related to forfeiture and confiscation (eg Order for forfeiture and Order for confiscation of motor vehicle), Final Protection Order (Sentencing Act), and Committed to a facility on conviction)
- No sentence recorded (includes where a person has been Convicted and discharged and where a person has been ordered to pay court costs as their most serious sentence).

This dataset includes charges with automatic name suppression.

Charges with interim name suppression only are excluded. Charges for children and young people in the Youth Court are also excluded, as the Youth Court is closed to the public.

From 29 April 2016, the Ministry of Justice sources courts data from the new Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), rather than the justice sector data warehouse (ISIS) used over recent years. Changes in data processing may cause small differences if compared current output with similar results produced before 29 April 2016.
Note that the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 changed the threshold for people being able to obtain name suppression. Now, people need to prove that publishing their name would cause them 'extreme hardship', rather than 'undue hardship'. Additionally, a specific provision was included to make it clear that being well known is not an automatic reason to obtain name suppression.

At URL provided, download 'View or download the final name suppression data tables' file.

People granted final name suppression data includes information on charges and people charged with offences where final name suppression was applied.