National Headquarters
Fire and Emergency New Zealand
National Headquarters
Spark Central, Level 7
42-52 Willis Street
Wel ington Central
Wel ington 6011
Phone +64 4 496 3600
11 August 2023
Thomas A
By email: [FYI request #23531 email]
Tēnā koe Thomas
Information Request – Addition of the Crown to FENZ Crest
We refer to your official information request dated 19 July 2023 asking for al communications and
guidelines about the addition and use of the crown to the Fire and Emergency New Zealand crest,
how much the addition of the crown has cost, and any plans to implement it across the
organisation.
Your request has been assessed in accordance with the provisions of the Official Information Act
1982 (OIA). A crown was never added to the Fire and Emergency crest. Rather, there are three
variations on the crest, documented in our visual brand identity. Two of these crests do not use a
crown and one does. The one that does is cal ed our ‘Formal Royal Badge’.
The Formal Royal Badge crest is not currently approved for use anywhere which means we have
no guidelines for its use. Therefore, this aspect of your request is refused under section 18(e) of
the OIA, because the information does not exist. However, there are plans to implement it on the
new Fire and Emergency Long Service Medal, but the crest still needs to be approved and these
plans finalised.
This means no cost has been incurred adding the crown to our crest as no crown has been added.
Therefore, this aspect of your request is also refused under section 18(e) of the OIA. Please note
that even if we had begun to use this crest, the crown would not be separately itemised on
invoices costing particular applications of it. Therefore, even if it had been approved and was in
use, we could not answer this question.
Regarding the crown you saw on an appliance, without further details about the appliance in
question we cannot confirm whether there would have been a crown on the crest. Our fleet team
is not aware of any of our appliances using a crest different to the standard crest.
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 a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa nā
Julia McCook-Weir
Manager, Information Requests
encl