National Headquarters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
National Headquarters
Spark Central, Level 7
42-52 Wil is Street
Wel ington Central
Wel ington 6011
Phone +64 4 496 3600
6 August 2024
Ref: 14809
Steven
[FYI request #27292 email]
Tēnā koe Steven
Thank you for your email of 18 June 2024, to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting the
following information under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). Your request has been
considered under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) and we answer each aspect, below.
1. Please provide statistics or a report on the number of missed, unanswered or
abandoned/dropped calls that are presented to the Fire and Emergency NZ
Communications Centres, for the last 12 months (or financial year). This information should
be broken down by non-emergency and emergency calls, and by operating centre
(Northern, Central and Southern).
Please find attached, as
Appendix One to this response, data from 1 May 2023 to 31 May 2024 on
emergency and non-emergency abandoned cal s by centre. An abandoned cal is defined as a call
that is presented to the Mitel MiContact Center Enterprise (MiCCE) telephone automatic call
distribution system but not answered by a ComCen Dispatcher due to either the cal er hanging up
or being presented to a ComCen Dispatcher who was not available for calls.
We do not have, or report on missed calls. For this reason, it is necessary for us to refuse your
request under section 18(e) of the OIA, because the document al eged to contain the information
does not exist.
2. Does the Communications Centres use the same “Mi ce” or “Solidus” software as New
Zealand Police and St John Ambulance?
The MiCCE system is used in the Communication Centres and shared by both New Zealand Police
and Fire and Emergency. The telephony system we operate from, is not shared with Ambulance.
3. Are emergency and non-emergency calls recorded or stored in any servers, databases,
software or hardware. If so, what is the time period these are kept for?
Emergency and non-emergency calls are recorded and stored for seven years.
4. Does the software used by Fire and Emergency include desktop messaging between staff
and/or management?
The software used by Fire and Emergency includes desktop messaging in Microsoft Teams, MiCCE
and the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system.
5. What is the current total number of staffing employed in the Communications Centres?
What is this per centre? What is this broken down by staff rank and/or position?
As of 24 June 2024, nationally we had 83 persons employed in our Communication Centres.
Broken down by area, they are as follows:
•
31 – Northern
•
25 – Central
•
26 – Southern
•
1 – National
These are made up of:
•
1 – National Manager
•
3 – Centre Managers
•
4 – Operations Managers
•
12 – Shift Managers
•
63 – Dispatchers
6. What is the minimum staffing requirements for the Communications Centre? Is this a
national number or is it by centre?
We operate a minimum shift staffing level that is centre specific. These requirements are:
•
Northern: One Shift Manager and five dispatchers
•
Central: One Shift Manager and four dispatchers
•
Southern: One Shift Manager and four dispatchers
7. Is there any consideration or planning by Fire and Emergency NZ to recruit more staff into
the Communications Centre to alleviate the constant short staffing?
Recruitment is underway now for the next intake on 2 August 2024. This will lift the dispatcher and
Shift Manager combined number from 75 to 84 which is the National ComCen establishment for
this group.
8. Please provide a financial breakdown, by Centre, of annual budgets and operating costs for
the last financial year.
Please find attached, as
Appendix Two to this response, a table providing a summary of actual and
budget for each Communication Centre and costs recorded central y related to the operations of
the Communication Centres for the 2022/23 Financial Year.
9. If possible, please provide a financial breakdown for Communication Centre Managers,
covering any travel, accommodation, meetings or other business expenses for the period
between 01 Jan 2021 and 31 December 2023, broken down by year. There was a range of
secondments during this timeframe which may have caused significant expense to the
organisation.
Please find attached, as
Appendix Three to this response, a copy of the requested information.
Of note, Fire and Emergency does not record its financial transactions in a way that supports the
comprehensive reporting of expenditure related to Communication Centre Managers. To provide
this information we have manually mapped costs that are likely to be related to Communication
Centre Managers.
In some cases, there are transactions that haven’t been recorded with enough detail to determine
if they are related to Communication Centre Managers and/or there are transactions that will
relate to more staff than just the Communication Centre Managers (for example rent costs). These
costs have been excluded.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
We trust that the information being provided is of assistance. If you require further information,
please email [FENZ request email].
Please note that because of the identified public interest in the information that you have
requested, we may publish this response (with your personal details removed) on our website.
Nāku noa nā
Amanda Roberts
Acting Manager, Information Requests
