The Health Ministry is continuing to use its relationships with iwi as an excuse for not sharing Māori Covid-19 vaccination data with the North Island Whānau Ora Commissioning Agency, even though that data does not include iwi identifiers.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the Ministry will comply with yesterday’s High Court decision on a second judicial review of its policy.

He says while the court commented on aspects of the ministry’s decision-making, it did not direct it to release all data to the agency.

The court says the ministry must complete its process of making decisions about providing the data for those areas where it has not already done so, and review its decision to provide data in relation to those Māori in Te Ika-a-Māui who have had only a first dose.

Dr Bloomfield says the ministry is consulting a number of iwi about data-sharing with Whānau Ora.

He says it has declined to provide data on the scale requested, which was to identify every Māori in Te Ika a Māui who is not fully vaccinated.