The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) ( mi, Te Tari o te Pirimia me te Komiti Matua) is the central public service department of New Zealand charged with providing support and advice to the governor-general, the

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

and

members Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Cabinet of New Zealand The Cabinet of New Zealand ( mi, Te Rūnanga o te Kāwanatanga o AotearoaTranslated as: "The Rūnanga (literally 'Council') of the Government of New Zealand") is the New Zealand Government's body of senior ministers, accountable to the New Z ...

. The department is also charged with centrally leading New Zealand's "national security planning, which includes

civil defence Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mit ...

." The department's overall area of responsibility is in helping to provide, at an administrative level, the "constitutional and institutional glue" within New Zealand's parliamentary democracy. The department along with the State Services Commission, and the

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or i ...

constitute the central agencies or public service departments leading the state sector of New Zealand.

Role

The department serves the Executive branch of government (the governor-general, the prime minister and the Cabinet) through the provision of impartial advice and support services. In addition to serving the Executive, a major role of the department is to help co-ordinate the work of the core public service departments and ministries.

Supporting the prime minister and Cabinet

The department supports the prime minister's twin roles as leader of the government and chair of Cabinet, and provides three kinds of direct support to the prime minister: * Support for constitutional issues, including those associated with the formation of governments; and issues associated with the operation of the Cabinet system. * Overview of government activity and access to information on any and all issues that arise. * Administrative support to the prime minister (and also to the governor-general). This includes services to the Prime Minister – such as preparing replies to Parliamentary questions, and dealing with

Official Information Act 1982 The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) is an Act of the New Zealand Parliament which creates a public right to access information held by government bodies. It is New Zealand's primary freedom of information law and has become an important pa ...

requests and other correspondence.

Supporting the governor-general

The department also supports the governor-general of New Zealand in carrying out his or her functions to represent the King.

Structure

The department formally came into existence on 1 January 1990, as a result of a report which recommended establishing structures to provide two separate streams of advice to the prime minister; one, a new Government department to supply impartial advice and support to the prime minister and Cabinet (DPMC), and another, a Prime Minister's Private Office (which is not part of DPMC), to provide personal support and media services, and advice of a party political nature.

Government House Government House is the name of many of the official residences of governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors in the Commonwealth and the remaining colonies of the British Empire. The name is also used in some other countries. Gover ...

was added to the department in August 1990. The

National Assessments Bureau The National Assessments Bureau (NAB), previously known as the External Assessments Bureau (EAB), is a New Zealand intelligence analysis agency within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC). The NAB along with the Government Co ...

(formerly known as the External Assessments Bureau) became part of the department on 1 July 1991. Responsibility for civil defence and emergency management was consolidated in the department in 2014 through a business unit called the Ministry for Civil Defence and Emergency Management (MCDEM). MCDEM was superseded by an autonomous departmental agency hosted by DPMC in 2019, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Responsibility for leading the All-of-Government Response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand is part of COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case of the disease in New Zealand was reported ...

was transferred to DPMC from NEMA on 1 July 2020. The department consists of eight business units.

Ministers

The department serves 4 portfolios and 3 ministers.

Head of DPMC

Heads of the DPMC (formerly Secretary, now the Chief Executive) are:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Department of the Prime Minister And Cabinet (New Zealand) New Zealand Public Service departments

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...