Skip to content.
|Networking government in New Zealand.
You are here: Home » Standards » Interoperability (e-GIF) » Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) Initiatives

Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) Initiatives

Background

In emergency situations, New Zealand citizens and visitors need to be able to reliably contact emergency services. Traditionally, this has been via telephony based voice communication. Going into the future, data, video and IP-based telephony will provide other access channels.

In responding to civil emergencies and natural disasters, frontline Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) agencies, and voluntary organisations involved, need to be able to communicate effectively by radio and to respond in real-time, to meet PPDR outcomes.

Taking a co-ordinated approach to communications standards and interoperability is necessary to ensure efficient future use of government resources and reliable communications under adverse conditions.

A whole of Government approach is needed to ensure that the technological and organisational benefits of collaborative operation can be obtained by all PPDR agencies in central and local government.

An overall strategy for PPDR radio communications systems used by local and central government, first line responders and others will strengthen the effectiveness and improve the resilience and reliability of those systems.

In September 2006, the "Emergency Telecommunications Services Steering Group" (ETSSG) agreed to its Terms of Reference [CBC Min (06) 11/23 refers].

On 25 September 2006, the Cabinet Business Committee agreed:

  1. to interagency work to develop a technical interoperability standard for public protection and disaster relief (PPDR) radiocommunications, and
  2. to the development of a related PPDR spectrum allocation plan [CBC Min (06) 16/21 refers].

The ETSSG first met in December 2006. At that meeting, it agreed to develop a Group Charter that was consistent with the Terms of Reference.

Purpose

The purpose of the ETSSG is to research and plan a robust public protection and disaster relief framework for emergency radio and telecommunications services.

This fits in with wider Government aspirations and key themes for the decade, being:

  • Economic Transformation
  • Families - Young and Old
  • National Identity

This work will provide an interoperability standards and a network governance model that will enable the PPDR sector to:

  • Achieve improved operational and co-ordination efficiencies, and to meet government goals for security;
  • Enhance the resilience of PPDR communications systems, and the ability of emergency services to communicate under crisis conditions;
  • Obtain more efficient public management results;
  • Benefit from new technologies;
  • Reduce costs through bulk purchasing overall, and achieve best value from government expenditure and spectrum resource.

Objectives

The overall objective of the ETSSG is to:

  • Assure public trust by ensuring New Zealand PPDR Communications and ECS systems are robust, reliable and future-proofed, in order to provide ongoing sustained capability and service improvements in emergency communication situations.

This fits in with wider Government aspirations and key themes for the decade, as detailed above.

The specific objectives of the ETSSG are:

  • A government technical interoperability standard, to encourage the convergence of individual agencies' radiocommunications towards full interoperability on common platforms.
  • The development of a PPDR spectrum allocation plan, to ensure radio spectrum is reserved and available for PPDR use when required.
  • An overall strategy for managing and developing emergency call services, to recommend how these services are organised and provided in the future against demands created by changing demographics and climate, as well as health, social and justice requirements. This work will also guide the development of any emergency call service regulations under the Telecommunications Amendment Bill, to ensure the requirements of emergency call service providers are appropriately addressed.

The PPDR Initiatives

The ETSSG has established four working groups to address its objectives:

PPDR working group 1: Technical Interoperability (APCOP25)

  • Develop and implement government-wide technical interoperability standards for narrow-band voice and data radiocommunications used for PPDR.
  • The New Zealand Police are the lead agency for this initiative.
  • This standard has been included in the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF). See APCO P25.

PPDR working group 2: Spectrum Allocation Plan (Spectrum)

PPDR working group 3: Radio Communications Strategy (RCS)

  • Develop a strategy to enhance the integration, performance and reliability of PPDR radio communications.

  • The work programme for the Radio Communications Strategy working group is intended to be completed in three phases as follows:

    • Phase I (May 2007 - July 2007) to establish the working group and scope its future activities.
    • Phase II (August 2007 - June 2008) to research and document the short term (2-4 years), medium term (5-10 years) and long term (>10 years) requirements for whole of government PPDR
    • Phase III (July 2008 - September 2009) to analyse current and future requirements for government agencies to progress towrards PPDR radio communications interoperability (with benchmarks against appropriate international PPDR organisations standards) and to develop a long term strategy for their implementation
  • The New Zealand Police are the lead agency for this initiative.
  • A draft Strategy plan has been developed and is available for review from 3 November 2008 - 12 December 2008.  Refer below for the process.

PPDR working group 4: Emergency Call Services (ECS)

  • Determine a suitable future model for managing and developing emergency call services.
  • Guide the development of any emergency call service regulations under the Telecommunications Act 2001, to ensure that the requirements of emergency service providers are appropriately addressed.
  • Produce an Emergency Call Services Strategy Report for Cabinet
  • The New Zealand Police are the lead agency for this initiative.

Consultation

The State Services Commissioner is the Steward of the e-GIF, with accountability and corresponding decision-making authority for its ongoing development and management.  The Information and Communication Technologies Branch (ICT) of the State Services Commission is the Custodian, with responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the e-GIF under the oversight of the e-GIF Management Committee.  The custodian for e-GIF is responsible for ensuring a consultation process for all e-GIF related standards and emerging technologies is carried out to ensure a whole of Government approach has been considered and discussed widely throughout the State Services and wider State Sector.

If you have any questions or would like to review and comment on any documentation from the above initiatives, please make your enquiry or request through e-gif@ssc.govt.nz