A Crown entity (from the Commonwealth term Crown) is an organisation that forms part of New Zealand's state sector established under the Crown Entities Act 2004,^[1] a unique umbrella governance and accountability statute. The Crown Entities Act is based on the corporate model where the governance of the organisation is split from the management of the organisation.

Crown entities come under the following types:

• Statutory entities – bodies corporate established under an Act
  • Crown agents – organisations that give effect to government policy, such as the Accident Compensation Corporation, which administers no-fault workers compensation
  • Autonomous Crown entities (ACE), which must have regard to government policy, such as Te Papa, the national museum
  • Independent Crown entities (ICE), which are generally independent of government policy, such as the Commerce Commission, which enforces legislation promoting competition
• Crown entity companies – registered companies wholly owned by the Crown, including Crown Research Institutes (CRIs) and a small number of other companies
• Crown entity subsidiaries – companies that are subsidiaries of Crown entities
• School boards of trustees
• Tertiary education institutions, including universities, colleges of education, polytechnics, and wānanga

Crown entities can be contrasted with other New Zealand public sector organisational forms: departments of state, state-owned enterprises, offices of Parliament and sui generis organisations like the Reserve Bank.

Under the Crown Entities Act, ministers are required to "oversee and manage" the Crown's interests in the Crown entities within their portfolio (sections 27 and 88). The board of the entity has the key role in ensuring the entity is achieving results within budget. This is done by a monitoring department on behalf of the minister unless other arrangements for monitoring are made. Monitoring departments make explicit agreements with their minister, setting out what monitoring they will undertake and how they will do it. Crown entity boards should also facilitate clear and transparent monitoring, for example, by providing the minister and monitoring department with good information on which to make judgements about performance.^[2]

This table is based on one from the State Services Commission.^[3]

Abbreviations used:

• ACE = autonomous Crown entity
• CCMAU = Crown Company Monitoring Advisory Unit
• CEC = Crown entity company
• CRIs = Crown research institutes (all CECs)
• ICE = independent Crown entity
• TPK = Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development)
• MoRST = Ministry of Research, Science and Technology
• TEIs = tertiary education institutions
• School BoTs = school boards of trustees

• List of public sector organisations in New Zealand
• Public Service Commission (New Zealand)
• Regulatory agency
• Statutory body
• Statutory corporation
• Te Arawhiti
• Crown corporations of Canada