The Parliamentary Counsel Office has selected Unisys New Zealand Ltd as the preferred implementation partner for the project to improve public access to legislation, the Attorney-General, Margaret Wilson, announced today.

The government plans to make authoritative, accurate, and up-to-date versions of New Zealand legislation available without charge through the internet. Print access will continue to be provided at a reasonable price.

"The announcement is timely in view of the recent launch of the Government’s e- government strategy," said Margaret Wilson.

" The access to legislation project is an excellent illustration of how well technology will be used to improve access to Government information. The project will provide access to New Zealand legislation in a convenient, cost-effective way, and will make citizens better informed and better able to participate in government.

"The selection of Unisys marks the end of the request for implementation partner process begun in December last year. That process has taken longer than anticipated due to the extremely high quality of the responses and the nature of the issues that they raised. This made the evaluation process difficult and time-consuming. The Parliamentary Counsel Office is grateful to all the firms that submitted responses, and appreciates the time, effort, and expense that they have contributed to the process.

The next stage in the project, following the conclusion of a contract with Unisys, is to begin stage 1. This involves the detailed planning, scoping, and analysis necessary to properly identify the processes and systems required to improve public access to legislation.

“This is a significant milestone in the project”, said the Minister. The project still has a long way to go, but will eventually provide significant benefits to all users of legislation.

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