NICNAS communication activities during 2005-06 ensured well-informed and actively engaged stakeholders. Activities focussed on:

engaging with the right people at the right time

enhancing public access to information, and

maintaining a customer service delivery focus to meet Government policy.

Our communication strategies focus on targeted alliances to ensure the efficient distribution of information to increase knowledge and awareness on:

the work of NICNAS

existing and proposed regulatory requirements, and

the safe use of chemicals.

Quantity

During 2005-06 NICNAS responded to 7735 (compared to 2909 in 2004-05 and1510 in 2003-04) public enquiries, which took 1965.35 (1356 in 2004-05 and 487 in 2003-04) hours to handle. This was made up of 5341 telephone enquiries and 2394 written enquiries, as indicated in Figure 16.

This represents a significant increase in public enquiries reflecting the success of the NICNAS engagement strategy which has been used to increase visibility and access by the public.

Figure 16: Number of enquiries (Telephone and written) and hours spent in response, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06

		2003-04	2004-05	2005-06
		Total number	Total hours spent	Total number	Total hours spent	Total number	Total hours spent
Telephone	Registration	131	22.51	447	186.40	2250	265.15
General	4	0.40			7	1.05
Compliance	204	46.30	451	98.73	1937	345.60
New Chems	734	122.08	949	272.05	723	213.70
PEC			182	125.85	366	133.90
Existing Chems	136	110.50
Data team					58	13.00
Total	1209	301.79	2029	683.03	5341	972.40
Written	Registration	1	10.48	88	40.10	711	145.60
General
Compliance	41	40.50	23	13.25	867	231.85
New Chems	190	78.54	557	305.30	422	217.20
PEC	69	66.00	212	314.10	314	385.95
Data team					80	12.40
Total	301	11.45	880	672.70	2394	992.95
Total		1510	487.28	2909	1355.73	7735	1965.35