BRIEFING
Google indemnity notification to support the Emergency Caller Location
Information (ECLI) Service
Date:
18 January 2022
Priority:
Medium
Security
In Confidence
Tracking
2122-2355
classification:
number:
Action sought
Action sought
Deadline
Hon Stuart Nash
Note the Ministry of Business,
28 January 2022
Minister for Economic and
Innovation and Employment has
Regional Development
entered into a new zero fees
Agreement with Google LLC
(
Google) for the continued use of
Google’s Android Emergency
Location Services (
ELS).
Note the Ministry has granted an
indemnity in favour of Google and
that the same indemnity has already
been given under the original
agreement, with identical wording.
Agree to the recommendations
regarding the next steps in your role
of Minister for Economic and
Regional Development.
Hon Dr David Clark
Note the Ministry of Business,
28 January 2022
Minister for the Digital
Innovation and Employment has
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Economy and Communications entered into a new zero fees
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Agreement with Google LLC
(
Google) for the continued use of
Google’s Android Emergency
Location Services (
ELS).
Note the Ministry has granted an
indemnity in favour of Google and
that the same indemnity has already
been given under the original
agreement, with identical wording.
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
Contact for telephone discussion (if required)
Name
Position
Telephone
1st contact
Phil Parker
ECLI Director
s9(2)(a)
James Hartley
General Manager, Digital, 04 460 1396
s9(2)(a)
Communications and
Transformation
The following departments/agencies have been consulted
Treasury
Minister’s office to complete:
Approved
Declined
Noted
Needs change
Seen
Overtaken by Events
See Minister’s Notes
Withdrawn
Comments
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THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
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BRIEFING
Google indemnity notification to support the Emergency Caller Location
Information (ECLI) Service
Date:
18 January 2022
Priority:
Medium
Security
In Confidence
Tracking
2122-2355
classification:
number:
Purpose
As required by legislation, this briefing notifies you that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (the
Ministry), in accordance to Section 65ZE of the Public Finance Act 1989 (the
Act) has entered into a new zero fees agreement with Google LLC (
Google) which includes
obligations to indemnify Google. The Ministry requests that you present a statement to the House
Office of the House of Representatives (the
House) in this respect.
Executive summary
The Ministry has entered into a new zero fees agreement with Google to enable the Emergency
Cal er Location Information (
ECLI) service to continue using Google’s Android Emergency Location
Services (
ELS) as a highly accurate method of determining the location of 111 mobile callers.
The ECLI service provides emergency services with the best available mobile caller location when
a person cal s 111 on their smartphone. The ECLI service relies on ELS as one of its primary
sources of high accuracy ECLI data,
s9(2)(b)(ii)
The ability of the ECLI service to provide high precision location information for emergency callers
who use Android smartphones would be substantial y reduced without use of the ELS.
sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
In the same way as the existing ELS agreement, the new Agreement requires
the Ministry to grant an indemnity in favour of Google.
Following the indemnity being provided to Google, the next steps in the process to recognise the
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indemnity, noting the actions required from you, are:
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The Minister’s office provides the House Office with 5 printed copies and a PDF of the
signed statement, attached to an email advising your approval for its presentation to the
House;
The House Office presents the statement as a non-parliamentary paper; and
The House Office publishes the statement on the Parliament website.
Recommended action
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment recommends that you:
a
Note that in accordance with Section 65ZE of the Act and Regulation 4(f) of the Public
Finance (Departmental Guarantees and Indemnities) Regulations 2007 (the
Regulations)
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that the Ministry has now entered into an Agreement with Google which includes obligations
to indemnify Google in respect of certain actions.
Noted
b
Note Regulation
5 of the Regulations requires the Ministry to notify you and the Treasury
Secretary of the indemnities.
Noted
c
Note Regulation 5 of the Regulations requires the Ministry to provide you, the Responsible
Minister, with a copy of the indemnities, and Section 65ZE of the Act requires the
Responsible Minister to sign and present a statement to the House confirming that the
indemnities have been given. This briefing includes a copy of the statement (see Annexe 1,
page 8).
Noted
Minister for Economic and Regional Development only
d
Agree that you wil approve and sign the statement (see Annex Two, page 19), and present
the statement to the House.
Agree / Disagree
e
Note that the House Office wil present the signed statement as a
non-parliamentary paper in
accordance with Section 65ZE(3) of the Act.
Noted
James Hartley
Hon Stuart Nash
General Manager,
Minister for Economic
Digital, Communications
and Regional Development
and Transformation, MBIE
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..... / ...... / ......
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18 / 01 / 2021
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
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Background
1.
The Ministry launched the Emergency Cal er Location Information (
ECLI) service in May
2017 to deliver Cabinet’s requirement to provide emergency services with the best available
mobile caller location when a person cal s 111 on their smartphone. The service saves lives
by decreasing the time emergency services take to accept and verify the location of 111
mobile callers and dispatch emergency services to assist.
2.
The location where emergency calls originate that are made from mobile phones is
determined by a combination of methods, the key one being Advanced Mobile Location
(
AML). AML is a function in smartphones that transmits the current position when a cal er
makes an emergency call. The smartphone detects when it is an emergency cal , activates
the internal positioning function (
GPS) and automatically sends the position data to
emergency services. AML provides
high accuracy location information, pinpointing the
caller’s location to within a radius of 50 metres.
3.
AML is an open standard supported on Android and Apple devices. Google developed its
Android Emergency Location Services (
ELS) capability to provide AML-compliant locations
for Android devices. Google states that ELS is supported by over 99% of existing Android
devices (version 4.1 and upwards).
4.
The ECLI service relies on ELS as one of its primary sources of high accuracy ECLI data,
s9(2)(b)(ii)
Continued use of ELS wil enable the ECLI service to reliably determine and deliver
high accuracy location for a high percentage of emergency calls. Between January and
November 2021, an average of 95,756 genuine emergency calls were made per month, with
high accuracy locations generated for an average of 85.71% of these calls.
5.
The Ministry and Google entered into a zero fees agreement in November 2017 for the use
of ELS for a two-year term with automatic renewal for one additional two-year terms expiring
5 November 2021.
6.
The Ministry and Google completed negotiations for the replacement Agreement prior to
expiry of the original agreement. Google further agreed to extend the term of the original
agreement until 5 May 2022 to allow time for the Ministry to complete due process to ratify
the new Agreement, under which the Ministry provides an uncapped indemnity.
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7.
The Ministry and Google now have a new Agreement to secure the continued use of ELS
with enhanced services. The new Agreement supersedes the previous agreement and
amendment. A signed copy of the Agreement is annexed to this briefing.
The Agreement
8.
The parties to the Agreement are the Ministry and Google, a subsidiary of the holding
company Alphabet Inc. Google is a global technology company specialising in internet-
related services and products. It is primarily focused on web-based search and display
advertising tools, search engine functions, cloud computing and software.
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
9.
The new Agreement enables the Ministry to continue using the ELS service offered by
Google. The ability of the ECLI service to provide high precision location information for
emergency callers who use Android smartphones would be substantial y reduced without use
of the ELS.
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10. The new Agreement offers an enhanced version of ELS that supports AML v2.0 with
additional location data fields such as altitude, location time relative to the time of the
emergency call, and more location positioning methods. The extended data set would al ow
the ECLI service to explore opportunities to improve location information provided to
emergency services, for example the ability to derive not only the location of an emergency,
but the actual floor of the emergency in a multi-storey building.
11.
sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
The same indemnity has already
been given under the original agreement of 2017, which this agreement replaces. The
wording of the indemnity in the new agreement is identical to the wording of the indemnity in
the original agreement.
12. Treasury guidance to departments states that an attempt to remove an indemnity from
agreements should be made prior to giving the indemnity.
13.
sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
14.
15.
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17. In accordance with Regulation 5 of the Regulations, the Treasury Secretary has been given
notice (and a copy) of the indemnity.
Google indemnity
sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
Necessary or Expedient in the Public Interest
19. The Act restricts the ability of any person to provide an indemnity/guarantee on behalf of the
Crown. Section 65ZE(1) of the Act states that a department may (on behalf of the Crown)
give an indemnity or guarantee if it appears to the department to be “necessary or expedient
in the public interest” to do so.
20. It is clearly in the public interest to maintain the ECLI service as it helps to save lives. Since
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its launch in May 2017, emergency services providers have achieved faster emergency call
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handling and more effective emergency response times. Emergency Service Providers are
streamlining their call-taking procedures in order to leverage ECLI, particularly where high
precision location is available.
21. ECLI is continual y optimising its service to improve the yield of locations with high accuracy
and precision. From September 2018 to November 2021, the ECLI service consistently
delivered high accuracy and precision locations for 75% – 86% of smartphone calls to the
111 emergency services.
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
The Ministry’s Process for Providing an Indemnity
22. Following Treasury’s guidance for giving indemnity, the Ministry:
Prepared a business case outlining the terms of indemnity, the risk and mitigations;
Approved the business case (by the Ministry’s Chief Executive);
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Accepted Google’s terms and conditions (by entering into the Agreement); and
Notified the Treasury Secretary.
The Statement of Indemnity
23. The Ministry has prepared the following statement of indemnity for your approval prior to
submission to the House Office in the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives.
Please see Annex Two on page 19.
Next steps
24. The remaining steps to complete the process are:
Your office (Minister for Economic and Regional Development only) to email 5 printed
copies and a PDF attachment of the signed statement (annexe 2) to the House Office in
the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives to advise that you have approved
its presentation to the House;
You (Minister for Economic and Regional Development only) present the statement to the
House; and
The House Office publishes the statement on the Parliament website.
Annexes
Annex One:
s9(2)(b)(ii)
Annex Two: Statement of Indemnity
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(a), 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
s9(2)(a)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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sections 9(2)(b)(ii), 9(2)(ba)(i), 9(2)(ba)(ii), 9(2)(d), 9(2)(i), 9(2)(j) and 9(2)(k)
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Annex Two: Statement of Indemnity
Statement of Indemnity given under the Public Finance Act 1989
Pursuant to section 65ZE(3) of the Public Finance Act 1989, the Minister for Economic and
Regional Development makes the fol owing statement:
On 11 January 2022 the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment,
on behalf of the Crown, gave an indemnity to Google LLC and its affiliates, directors, officers, and
employees in relation to the supply of the Android Emergency Location Service by Google LLC to
the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment.
Dated at Wellington this 24th day of January 2022
Hon Stuart Nash
Minister for Economic and Regional Development
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Extract of:
Digital Economy and Communications
Pūrongo Tūnga Status Report
Prepared 31 March for the week ending 1 April 2022
Minister: Hon Dr David Clark, Minister for the Digital Economy and
Communications
Departments: Te Tari Taiwhenua Department of Internal Affairs, Ministry
of Business, Innovation and Employment Hīkina Whakatutuki, Department
of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Te Tari o te Pirimia me te Komiti Matua,
and Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa
Classification: RESTRICTED
[…]
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THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION
Wāhanga 1: Ngā Take Matua me ngā Whakaarotau
Section 1: Key issues and priorities
(Changes since last report in
bold)
Ngā Whakahounga Matua
Key updates
[…]
Ngā whai whakaarotanga
Whakapā
Considerations
Contact
Retention of ECLI funding – Budget 2022
James Hartley (MBIE)
Funding to operate and maintain the Emergency Cal er Location
Information system sits within multi-category appropriation
Communications: Management of Emergency Telecommunications
Services MCA for financial year 2021/22. A move from service
improvements to largely BAU operations means the multi-category
appropriation structure is no longer necessary. Through the March
Baseline Update, an annual appropriation has been established for
financial year 2022/23 onwards.
The existing appropriation includes funding for the continued delivery
of the Emergency Cal er Location Information System and for technical
enhancements necessary to keep the service current, for example being
able to function with 5G technology. A roadmap for the developments
required to ensure the service keeps pace with emerging technology
has been developed, however the timing of work is influenced
externally by work of other parties (e.g. mobile network operators).
Work on the keeping pace enhancements wil need to be undertaken
s9(2)(g)(i)
but may fal into the next
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financial year.
s9(2)(f)(iv)
THE OFFICIAL INFORMATION