10. Question No. 10—PoliceNICOLE McKEE (ACT) to the Minister of PoliceQuestion No. 10—Police10. NICOLE McKEE (ACT) to the Minister of Police: Is he confident that all information stolen during the firearms licensing data breach at the former Auckland Central Police Station on Vincent Street has since been recovered?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Police): Police have advised me that they believe that all of the information stolen during the firearms licensing data breach at the former Auckland Central Police Station on Vincent Street have been recovered. The member may also be reassured to know that the police have been regularly running checks to identify if any firearms licence holders have been subject to a burglary and I'm advised that no one from this cohort has been.Nicole McKee: How can the Minister be confident that all of the information stolen during the firearms licensing data breach has been recovered when he can't confirm that of the contents of the storage bin that was stolen from the former police station after being left there for 11 to 12 months?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I can only go off the advice that Police have provided me and they have provided me with advice that they believe that all of the information stolen has been recovered.Nicole McKee: Why have only 2245 individuals—out of the 3763 individuals who were affected by the firearms licensing data breach—been contacted by police and what efforts are being made to contact the remaining individuals affected by this data breach?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I'm advised that Police has now analysed over 4000 documents that were stolen and recovered. Police have spoken to 329 individuals of an initial group of 444 whose data sheets contained full details of names and addresses. Police have been unsuccessful in contacting the remaining 115 individuals by phone. They have attempted to send them communications—either email or text messages—to their last known contact details. Police have further identified a further 2814 individuals for whom partial identifying information was on the documents including partial full name or address. There have been 1293 notified via email or text message; however not all individuals have been easily identifiable and the police continue to identify and notify those individuals as they can. Police has also released a public notice encouraging firearms licence holders and anyone seeking information on the privacy breach to contact police on an 0800 number that has been provided or a dedicated email address which has also been provided. Nicole McKee: Does the Minister stand by his response to my written questions where he confirmed that he hasn't received any reports briefings memos aide-mémoire notes or written advice on this matter from July to date and if so what communications has he received on this matter that justifies the confidence? Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: At the time of the answer it was correct—of course I've received some further information today in preparation to answer the member's question.Nicole McKee: Does the Minister expect firearm owners to have confidence in participating in full registration of their firearms and if so why should firearm owners have confidence when police could not keep their information secure or even hold an inquiry to investigate how such a data breach was able to occur?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I think that the situation that occurred with Vincent Street was completely unacceptable and I think that Police do acknowledge that. I think moving to a digitised system of keeping firearms records will ultimately be more secure than having paper files in filing cabinets.