Emergency situations can include:
- natural or manmade disasters, eg earthquakes, cyclones, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, flooding, fires or contamination
- failures of critical infrastructure or equipment: such as failure of a prison security system or critical hospital infrastructure
- critical health or environmental emergencies: such as a pandemic or food safety incident
- political emergencies: such as a war, coup, or civil insurrection in New Zealand or countries where the New Zealand government offers support
- critical security emergencies: such as a terrorist attack, serious crime or major cyber security emergency
- unanticipated events that make it impossible for an agency to perform a statutory or critical function in the necessary timeframe: for example the destruction of critical election supplies immediately prior to an election would be an emergency for the Electoral Commission.
Urgent situations that are created by an agency through a lack of planning or risk mitigation do not constitute an emergency.
Full details on options for emergency procurement are in our guide.
