Photo: 123RF
More than 1600 alcohol sellers - including bottle stores, pubs, restaurants and supermarkets - haven't been counted in national figures, a health advocacy group warns.
Public Health Communication Centre (PHCC) fears the inaccurate reporting of suppliers impacts the country's response to alcohol harm.
New information released by PHCC has found national data is 13 percent short off the actual number of on-licences that exist, which include restaurants, bars and pubs, and also 15 percent short on off-licences, which include bottle stores and supermarkets.
Alcohol Healthwatch senior health promotion advisor Sarah Sneyd said getting the data right was important, considering alcohol harm was estimated to cost $9 billion annually.
"Several researchers prominent in this space have already told me that they will not do any future work on alcohol availability in New Zealand, because the data is just too poor to get quality findings," Sneyd said.
According to PHCC, the most recent figures show 1097 on-licence venues have been unaccounted for nationally, while 587 off-licences are also missing.
The inaccuracies meant patterns of availability could not be reliably tracked and resources could not be targeted towards the areas of greatest need, the centre said.
National data is held by the Alcohol Regulatory and Licensing Authority (ARLA) - an independent tribunal supported by the Ministry of Justice - which gets its information from councils' district-licensing committees.
ARLA's register is hosted on the Ministry of Justice's website and updated quarterly.
Courts and tribunals group manager Jacquelyn Shannon said discrepancies between the ARLA register and district licensing committee information were generally because of differing business processes relating to information updates.
PHCC says ARLA's data is the only national source of licence numbers, conditions and locations.
Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee last month signed off on loosening the country's alcohol laws. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The group's concerns ring true in Southland, where only 80 percent of alcohol providers have been included in the national data.
Invercargill City Council's reporting area was home to 76 on-licences and 26 off-licences, but ARLA had a record of 67 and 22 respectively.
Southland District Council had100 on-licences and 43 off-licences, but ARLA recorded 89 and 33 respectively.
Gore District Council was home to nine on-licences and 12 off-licences - ARLA recorded zero and one respectively.
Alcohol Healthwatch believed ARLA's data was poor, because they were not being supplied with the requirements.
Council staff were "absolutely swamped" and data reporting was sometimes the first task to go, Sneyd said.
Invercargill City Council consenting and environment group manager Jonathan Shaw said discrepancies were likely due to differences in reporting cycles and frequency of updates.
Shaw said a more up-to-date record of 74 on-licences and 27 off-licences had been provided to ARLA and the council would monitor the register to ensure accuracy.
A Southland District Council spokesperson said the underreporting could be due to different factors, including differences in the timing of ARLA and council processes.
Council updates were not always included in the national register correctly or immediately, due to delays and errors, they said.
Gore District Council operations general manager David Bainbridge-Zafar said the council took its ARLA reporting responsibilities seriously.
The council was unable to comment on discrepancies, because it had no information or knowledge of ARLA's processes, he said.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
