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
12 December 2025
Ref: 19999
Rex Tillington
[FYI request #32843 email]
Tēnā koe Rex
Thank you for your request of 14 November 2025 to Fire and Emergency New Zealand requesting
the following information in relation to the organisational structure change proposal, under the
Official Information Act 1982 (OIA):
•
Please provide a statement, and any supplementary communications (emails, teams, etc)
regarding the fol owing:
•
Has FENZ initiated any discussions with external companies about their capacity to
handle outsourcing or partial outsourcing of the fol owing functions Desktop
Support (IT Support) Application Support (SMS, AMS, Awhina, Mobility)
Infrastructure and Networking (Azure Cloud, on prem hardware)
•
Note the above do not feature exhaustive lists and are to be interpreted as
examples only
•
If so, what are the names of the companys involved in these discussions.
We note that a portion of your request askes for
a statement. The primary purpose of the OIA is to
allow requesters to seek information that is held by an agency. It is not a mechanism for
requesters to seek an agency’s explanation or opinion. Opinion is not covered by the OIA as this
can be considered the creation of new information.
In respect of the remaining portions of your request, we have interpreted this to be asking what
discussions and/or engagement was undertaken with external ICT companies in relation to
potential outsourcing changes proposed in the organisational structure change proposal. We can
advise that Fire and Emergency has not initiated any discussions with external companies who
could provide these services. Therefore, we do not have a list of company names to provide you.
For this reason, we are refusing this aspect of your request under section 18(e) of the OIA, as the
document al eged to contain the information requested does not exist.
The Fire and Emergency New Zealand organisational change proposal is with our people, unions
and associations for their feedback. This proposal is about ensuring we are best positioned to
deliver a modern and responsive emergency service. The primary focus is to provide a trusted
service that keeps New Zealanders safe. Our dedicated people do an amazing job looking after our
communities and this proposal is about ensuring we are best positioned to continue doing that.
Subject to consultation, the proposals in the restructure wil touch around 700 roles across the
organisation, resulting in the net loss of around 140 positions. No frontline firefighter positions are
impacted, although some supporting functions may change. While the consultation period to
provide feedback was planned to close on 26 November 2025, the closing date was extended and
closed on 10 December 2025 with decisions on the final structure intended to be announced on 29
January 2026.
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.
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