Weekly trouble at city Winz

Winz has experienced a series of troubles over the last year.

More than 200 security incidents have occurred at Rotorua Work and Income (Winz) in the past three years, official figures show.

Given there are about 250 working days each year, that works out to an average of one reported incident every week.

The figures were released to the Rotorua Daily Post under the Official Information Act, as a trial looms over the shootings at the Ashburton Work and Income office last year.

Russell John Tully, 48, is accused of entering the Ashburton Work and Income in September and opening fire on four women, resulting in the deaths of two of them.

His trial was due to begin in the Christchurch High Court on May 11 but has been deferred, the reason suppressed.

In Rotorua, 220 security incidents occurred between 2012 and 2014. Eleven of the incidents were considered "serious" and 13 required police intervention.

Another 24 incidents took place at Whakatane Work and Income - including two "critical" incidents last year. Taupo Work and Income had 84 security incidents over the three-year period.

-"Critical" incidents included death, serious injury requiring hospitalisation, bomb threats and arson.

-"Serious" incidents included physical harm requiring medical treatments, threats made with an intention to harm, stalking or intimidation of staff.

-"Moderate" incidents included assaults where there was no injury, aggression and abuse.

-"Minor" incidents were all other incidents that impacted on the safety of staff and clients, or the physical security of ministry assets, information or data.

Work and Income deputy chief executive Dorothy Adams said every threat was taken seriously and dealt with swiftly by ministry staff and police.

"It is unacceptable for people to threaten ministry staff who are carrying out their professional duties," she said.

"On September 1, 2014, the ministry introduced a zero-tolerance policy towards abusive and violent behaviour against staff.

"The implementation of this policy resulted in an increase in reported incidents in 2014."

WorkSafe filed a charge against the Ministry of Social Development after the Ashburton shootings and the ministry commissioned an independent security review.

The ministry added more than 250 security staff to sites and put in new security processes, including controlled access.

There were more than 8000 security incidents at the 170 client-facing Work and Income sites in the past three years - about 10 every working day.