Recommendation Date
Recipient Name
NZSAR Council & New Zealand Police
Text
Direct the Rescue Coordination Centre and New Zealand Police to work together to ensure that effective processes are in place that allow the Rescue Coordination Centre to coordinate maritime and/or aviation assets on behalf of Police when requested or deemed beneficial, fully utilising the strengths of both SAR coordinating authorities for efficient and well-coordinated search and rescue operations.
Reply Text
On 27 March 2025 NZSAR Council replied:
Your recommendations have been discussed with the two Search and Rescue Coordination Authorities, Maritime New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre and the New Zealand Police.
After these discussions, as acting Chair of the NZSAR Council, I accept that recommendations 019/25 and 020/25 are being implemented.
The Rescue Coordination Centre and New Zealand Police are working together to implement recommendation 019/25 and are actively discussing recommendation 020/25 and how this can be progressed.
We will keep you informed of progress of these recommendations.
On 21 March 2025 New Zealand Police replied:
Again, the owner of this recommendation is our Director - Major Operations (Superintendent Joel Lamb), in collaboration with other parts of Police as required - in particular, District Search and Rescue teams.
This recommendation is Being Implemented in conjunction with RCCNZ. Discussions are ongoing and have resourcing implications that need to be worked through. To date:
• Terminology changes have been implemented and are currently being utilised, which are assisting in more streamlined processes.
• Police have implemented a process allowing the RCCNZ to contact District on-call search and rescue staff directly for ambulance-initiated SAR air taskings.
• Police are currently working with RCCNZ to streamline air taskings for Police initiated SAR incidents.
• The implementation of this process has streamlined communication between RCCNZ and Police on the ground. This allows Police to provide local input and assists both Coordinating Authorities to provide a more efficient response.
• RCCNZ has proposed a trial from May 2025 to explore opportunities to enhance the deploying of rescue aviation from the St John Airdesk.
• The restructure of the NZSAR Secretariat has led to both Coordinating Agencies taking a more proactive role in SAR leadership. With the establishment of the SAR Operation Leadership Group (SOLG) the Coordinating Authorities jointly Chair the group made up of SAR partners and NGOs. This is a new initiative created to enhance operational SAR and ensure system issues are addressed at an operational level.
RCCNZ and Police continue to collaborate on opportunities to enhance operational SAR responses.
As this recommendation requires joint engagement with RCCNZ and aspects relate to success of the proposed trial, it is tricky to confirm expected timeframes. However, at this stage we expect this recommendation to be completed by 30 June 2026.
Next steps
We have created a placeholder in our centralised Recommendations Database (reference 246297) and upon receipt of the Commission’s final report, the recommendations will be entered and formally assigned in the database to the appropriate owner. Our Recommendations Database drives accountability and provides a mechanism for our governance system to track and monitor progress made against each recommendation through to completion.
Your recommendations have been discussed with the two Search and Rescue Coordination Authorities, Maritime New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre and the New Zealand Police.
After these discussions, as acting Chair of the NZSAR Council, I accept that recommendations 019/25 and 020/25 are being implemented.
The Rescue Coordination Centre and New Zealand Police are working together to implement recommendation 019/25 and are actively discussing recommendation 020/25 and how this can be progressed.
We will keep you informed of progress of these recommendations.
On 21 March 2025 New Zealand Police replied:
Again, the owner of this recommendation is our Director - Major Operations (Superintendent Joel Lamb), in collaboration with other parts of Police as required - in particular, District Search and Rescue teams.
This recommendation is Being Implemented in conjunction with RCCNZ. Discussions are ongoing and have resourcing implications that need to be worked through. To date:
• Terminology changes have been implemented and are currently being utilised, which are assisting in more streamlined processes.
• Police have implemented a process allowing the RCCNZ to contact District on-call search and rescue staff directly for ambulance-initiated SAR air taskings.
• Police are currently working with RCCNZ to streamline air taskings for Police initiated SAR incidents.
• The implementation of this process has streamlined communication between RCCNZ and Police on the ground. This allows Police to provide local input and assists both Coordinating Authorities to provide a more efficient response.
• RCCNZ has proposed a trial from May 2025 to explore opportunities to enhance the deploying of rescue aviation from the St John Airdesk.
• The restructure of the NZSAR Secretariat has led to both Coordinating Agencies taking a more proactive role in SAR leadership. With the establishment of the SAR Operation Leadership Group (SOLG) the Coordinating Authorities jointly Chair the group made up of SAR partners and NGOs. This is a new initiative created to enhance operational SAR and ensure system issues are addressed at an operational level.
RCCNZ and Police continue to collaborate on opportunities to enhance operational SAR responses.
As this recommendation requires joint engagement with RCCNZ and aspects relate to success of the proposed trial, it is tricky to confirm expected timeframes. However, at this stage we expect this recommendation to be completed by 30 June 2026.
Next steps
We have created a placeholder in our centralised Recommendations Database (reference 246297) and upon receipt of the Commission’s final report, the recommendations will be entered and formally assigned in the database to the appropriate owner. Our Recommendations Database drives accountability and provides a mechanism for our governance system to track and monitor progress made against each recommendation through to completion.
Related Investigation(s)