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
2 October 2025
Ref: 18767
J Price
[FYI request #31675 email]
Tēnā koe J
Thank you for your request of 21 July 2025 to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting
information relating to workplace bullying, harassment, and sexual harm from 2020 and 2025
under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA). We copy and respond to your questions below.
1. What data do you col ect about workplace bullying, harassment or sexual harm incidents
occurring in your organisation? (For clarity, this includes requests for advice, assistance,
informal notifications or formal complaints relating to these types of behaviour.)
2. Please provide a list of the data fields used to record information about workplace bullying,
harassment or sexual harm, at each stage of the process you fol ow (from first contact and
initial inquiry through to case closure).
a. Please include an explanation of the classifications used in each data field and any
specific terminology, so it can be easily understood by someone from outside your
organisation.
Fire and Emergency previously managed complaints through the Behaviour and Conduct Office
(BCO), with the interim BCO first being established in March 2019, and the permanent BCO being
stood up in October 2021. It was formal y disestablished on 30 June 2024 and did not assume
responsibility for any new complaints after this date.
Since 29 April 2024, Fire and Emergency has contracted an external complaints service for bullying,
harassment, and sexual harm incidents, Speak Safe @ Fair Way (Speak Safe). The Speak Safe
service offers confidential workplace coaching for all workplace issues and concerns, as well as
complaints management and investigation services. Mediations and facilitations are also offered
and approved on a case-by-case basis.
Paid employees, volunteers and contractors can use Speak Safe to discuss options, engage in its
coaching service
(Kāpehu), or make a formal complaint, and must consent for an investigation to
proceed should their complaint be identified as meeting the threshold for investigation. Callers to
the Speak Safe service are labelled initially as “Service Requests” regardless of which service they
engage with.
Data is collected by Fair Way, and through their triage system they categorise the nature of the
issue by the most serious of the issues that the cal er presents with. Most Service Requests involve
a caller presenting with several issues.
Fair Way report on Service Requests broken down by category: sexual harassment, bul ying,
victimisation, and complex relationship issues. They also report on the same subcategories for
Kāpehu use. These categories are defined and detailed in the
International Ombudsman
Association Uniform Reporting Categories.
Fire and Emergency also records the nature of formal complaints alleging bullying, harassment,
and victimisation internally under one or more of the following categories:
• Bullying
• Racial harassment
• Sexual harassment
• Intimidation
• Harassment
• Sexual harm
• Sexual harm/harassment
• Inappropriate and/or unacceptable behaviour
Regarding the stage at which complaints are at, each of them is recorded as either open or closed.
We do not record information around advice or informal enquiries relating to bullying,
harassment, and victimisation.
3. Please provide a list of all reports produced by your organisation concerning workplace
bullying, harassment or sexual harm?
- Please include a brief explanation for each report of:
* who is responsible for its creation (i.e. the job title/role, not individual names)
* how often they are produced
* to whom they are distributed (job titles/roles)
* the purpose of the report, and
* the information and any data fields contained in each report.
Fire and Emergency’s People Branch produce and disseminate a six-monthly Complaints
Management Dashboard. The Independent Review of Fire and Emergency’s Workplace Culture
and Complaint Handling Practices report (Clark Report), released in December 2022,
recommended that “
There is improved communication around complaint handling”. This
recommendation talks to Fire and Emergency ensuring visibility of our complaints data and
information to ensure insights, behaviour, and patterns can be interpreted and addressed
accordingly.
The dashboard has been built to show high level key data across the complaints system bringing
both Fair Way and Fire and Emergency’s data into one place to provide a complete picture of our
end-to-end complaints management process. The aim of the dashboard is to:
• Provide transparency to stakeholders into the nature and frequency of complaints with
the aim of fostering trust.
• Identify trends by visualising complaint data, allowing us to identify patterns of recurring
issues and therefore prioritise areas of improvement.
• Monitor performance particularly around length of time cases remain open.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement through regularly reviewing data and
making changes based on feedback and trends.
Overall, this dashboard enhances visibility into complaints data, enabling proactive management
and fostering a responsive organisational culture. As the volume of data surrounding our
complaints system grows, the dashboard will be updated to show year on year trends across the
system.
The dashboard is available to all personnel in Fire and Emergency (via our Portal) and run on a six-
monthly cadence in line with Fair Way reporting. Our key stakeholders include our personnel
(volunteers, paid employees and contractors on the organisational chart), as well as our unions
and associations, and employee led networks are also provided with a copy of this report.
Fire and Emergency also receives reporting from Fair Way, who provide monthly statistical data
and quarterly insights reports that include data on bullying, harassment, victimisation and sexual
harassment. This information is distributed to the Manager Strategic Relationships, Corporate
Services. The report(s) are then shared with Deputy Chief Executives (DCE) Corporate Services and
People Branch. Within People Branch, it is shared with the People Advisory team who engage with
appropriate managers around lessons and trends identified.
The quarterly insights report is also shared with Reporting and Insights, People Branch and some
of the data is used to inform the Complaints Management Dashboard.
Quarterly engagement update sessions are held with unions and associations by Fair Way on the
Speak Safe service. These are organised by the Manager Strategic Relationships. Update sessions
are also provided to employee led networks, leadership teams, regions, brigades, or other groups
on request.
The purpose of this reporting is to:
• provide evidence of compliance with contract specifications for the Speak Safe service;
agreed processes and service offerings are evidenced.
• Provide insights and data to Fire and Emergency to inform emerging trends and issues.
• Provide reporting on the uptake of the service offerings, such as the investigations
opened, pending, closed, as well as the use of Kāpehu, mediations, and facilitations.
• Provide data on timeliness connected to the investigations process and Fire and
Emergency’s decision-making responsibilities in this process.
Please provide responses to Q4-7 for the period 2020-2025 (inclusive), broken down by
calendar year and listed under the headings of
(a) workplace bullying
(b) harassment
(c) sexual harm
4. The total number of incidents recorded.
Please also break these down according to any sub-categorisations you use internally to
differentiate types of bullying, harassment or sexual harm incidents.
Behaviour and Conduct Office – 2020-2024
As mentioned earlier, before Speak Safe, Fire and Emergency managed complaints through the
BCO from March 2019 to 30 June 2024. Please see
Table 1 of the attached
Appendix for a
breakdown of BCO cases involving bullying, harassment, or sexual harm from 2020 to 2024,
broken down by the categories and sub-categories each case is recorded against in the BCO
register.
Please note that the BCO did not distinguish between enquiries (e.g. asking for information or
support) and complaints. Our response to this question therefore captures al matters that were
raised with and logged by the BCO, not just formal complaints.
Cases were categorised according to the key allegation or theme in the complaint or enquiry.
Many cases involved multiple allegations which did not all necessarily fit into the same category.
Therefore, while your request asks about the number of ‘incidents’, we have provided the number
of cases raised with the BCO, rather than the precise number of instances of unwanted
interpersonal behaviour (e.g. bullying or harassment).
Speak Safe @ Fair Way – 2024-2025
Please note that as Speak Safe launched on 29 April 2024, we only hold data from Fair Way since
the launch date in 2024 and until 30 June 2025, the most recent reporting period before your
request was made.
Please note that while your request asks about the number of “incidents”, Fair Way report on
Service Requests, which may relate to multiple matters. Please see
Table 4 of the
Appendix for
data representing these requests by calendar year and category.
The figures in this table may be higher than the actual number of Service Requests received in any
given year, as some Service Requests fall under more than one category. The information
therefore gives an overal view of the nature of the Service Requests, not the precise number of
incidents or complaints.
Other cases – 2020-2025
Between 2020 and 2025, cases relating to bullying, harassment, and sexual harm have also been
recorded outside of the BCO and the Speak Safe service. Please see
Table 8 of the
Appendix for
data detailing the number of these cases by category and calendar year. Please note that the
figures in this table may be higher than the actual number of complaints received in any given
year, as some complaints fall under more than one category. The information therefore gives an
overall view of the nature of the cases, not the precise number of incidents or complaints.
5. The number of incidents that involved a formal investigation, broken down to show:
(i) internal investigations (i.e. those conducted by people employed by your organisation)
(i ) independent external investigations (i.e. external lawyers, investigators or other 3rd
parties engaged for the purpose of conducting the investigation)
6. The outcomes of the investigations completed in Q5 (using whatever categorisations your
organisation records internally against cases).
Behaviour and Conduct Office – 2020-2024
Regarding investigations for which the BCO was responsible, please see please see
Table 2 of the
Appendix, which details the number of investigations broken down by whether they were internal
or external investigations and the calendar year.
Please see
Table 3 of the
Appendix, which details the outcome of these investigations broken
down by calendar year. Please note the following about this information:
• Prior to October 2021, the interim BCO acted only as a triaging service and did not conduct
its own investigations. The BCO only holds full records for the complaints which it
investigated itself.
• This information does not therefore include cases that were closed before October 2021,
when the permanent BCO was established and took over responsibility for commissioning
investigations of new cases.
• Similarly, the decision to disestablish the BCO was made in September 2023, several
months before Speak Safe began operating. In light of the BCO’s impending closure,
complaints received after September 2023 were general y referred on to other parts of
the organisation for consideration and, if necessary, investigation.
• Our response to this question breaks the cases down by the year in which the complaint
was received, not the date when the outcome was determined. We note that the
commencement and conclusion of the investigation, and any resulting disciplinary process,
would not necessarily occur in the same calendar year.
In respect of both
Table 2 and
Table 3:
• Where an investigation had multiple complainants but only one subject, there is only one
entry, to reflect that allegations against only one person have been made.
• Where an investigation had multiple subjects, entries have been made for each subject, to
reflect that allegations against each different person have been made.
Both tables reflect the number of individuals whose behaviour was investigated, which differs
from the number of investigations commissioned, given that some investigations had multiple
subjects.
Speak Safe @ Fair Way – 2024-2025
Regarding data on investigations through Speak Safe, please see
Table 5 of the
Appendix, which
details the number of investigations opened by Fair Way, and of those investigations, how many
have been closed by calendar year. Since these investigations are all undertaken by Fair Way, we
consider that they are all ‘external’ investigations for the purposes of this request.
Please see
Table 6 and
Table 7 of the
Appendix for information about the category and outcome
of these investigations, broken down by calendar year. Please note that investigations may fall
under more than one of the specified categories, so the data provides the percentage of total
investigations in which any given category was a significant issue. Please also note some
investigations may have multiple outcomes.
Other investigations – 2020-2025
There have been investigations of cases relating to bul ying, harassment, and sexual harm in 2020
to 2025 that have taken place outside of the BCO or the Speak Safe service. However, Fire and
Emergency does not have a central system or database from which this information can be
produced. In order to identify the information requested, we would therefore need to manual y
check and the collate individual records to provide further data in response to your request.
For this reason, we are partially refusing this aspect of your request under section 18(f) of the OIA,
as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
We have considered whether seeking refinement of the request, extending the time to respond,
or fixing a charge would remove the reason for refusal, and enable us to provide the information,
but do not consider it would.
While Fire and Emergency does not centrally record which cases (outside of BCO and Speak Safe)
involved a formal investigation, their outcome is recorded. Please see
Table 9 of the
Appendix,
which details the outcome of cases broken down by category and calendar year. Please note that
cases with unknown outcomes have not been included.
7. The number of people who have left your organisation who were:
(a) complainants (i.e. people who raised any inquiry or complaint)
(b) respondents (i.e. people who were the subject of any inquiry or complaint allegations)
When personnel leave Fire and Emergency, we do not routinely record whether they were party to
a complaint as either a complainant or respondent. To identify this information, we would
therefore have to search our individual records of every person who has left Fire and Emergency
since 2020 to check whether they were involved in a complaint and categorise them accordingly.
This would be a significant undertaking to complete, and we consider that it would have an
unreasonable impact on our normal operations.
For this reason, we are refusing this aspect of your request under section 18(f) of the OIA, as the
information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research. We
have considered whether seeking refinement of the request, extending the time to respond, or
fixing a charge would remove the reason for refusal, and enable us to provide the information, but
do not consider it would. Even if the timeframe was narrowed, considerable research would still
have to go into identifying this information.
Please provide responses to Q8-9 for the period 2020-2025 (inclusive), broken down by
calendar year.
8. The number of settlement agreements (or other legal agreements containing any form of
non-disclosure requirement) signed by people leaving your organisation who were:
(a) complainants who raised any inquiry or complaint about workplace bullying,
harassment or sexual harm.
(b) respondents who were the subject of any inquiry or complaint about workplace
bullying, harassment or sexual harm.
Please see
Table 10 of the
Appendix which details the number of settlement agreements that we
could definitively identify as being signed by individuals that were the complainant or respondent
in a complaint relating to bullying, harassment, or sexual harm, broken down by whether they
were a complainant or a respondent.
Fire and Emergency does not have a central system or database where record of such agreements
has been routinely stored and recorded. We have therefore had to undertake a manual search of
our records. There may be agreements that we were unable to identify or which we were unable
to determine whether they related to a complaint about bul ying, harassment, or sexual harm of
any kind.
While we do hold record of these agreements that would allow us to answer this aspect of your
request, identifying and bringing together this information to provide a more complete dataset
would be a significant manual task. We would have to manually check and the collate this
information from individual records.
For this reason, we are partially refusing this aspect of your request under section 18(f) of the OIA,
as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
We have considered whether seeking refinement of the request, extending the time to respond,
or fixing a charge would remove the reason for refusal, and enable us to provide the information,
but do not consider it would.
9. The amount spent by your organisation on external legal advice for:
(a) legal services or advice provided in conducting independent investigations in Q5 (i )
(b) other advice provided about any other matters involving workplace bullying,
harassment or sexual harm
Fire and Emergency holds information relating to bullying, harassment, and sexual harm in several
different places, and there is no single central system or database that records the amount spent
on legal services or advice provided in conducting independent investigations, or other advice
provided about other matters involving workplace bullying, harassment, or sexual harm. To
provide this information, we would therefore have to identify and collate information from several
different sources, over a number of years, and we consider that doing so would have an
unreasonable impact on our normal operations.
For this reason, we are refusing this aspect of your request under section 18(f) of the OIA, as the
information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research. We
have considered whether seeking refinement of the request, extending the time to respond, or
fixing a charge would remove the reason for refusal, and enable us to provide the information, but
do not consider it would. Even if the timeframe was narrowed, considerable research would still
have to go into identifying this information.
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 intend to publish this response (with your personal details removed) on our
website.
Nāku noa, nā
Aidan Saunders
Manager, Information Requests
