The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs : Services : Births Deaths and Marriages : Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Act


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Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Act

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Please note that the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Act 2008 came into force on 25 January 2009.

General Questions and Answers
The Collection and Management of Information
Accessing Information on the Registers
Access to Information on the Internet
Name Change
Registration
Name of the Registry

General Questions and Answers

1. What are the purposes of the changes?
The Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Act 2008 (“the Amendment Act”) improves the ability of the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages to collect, verify and manage life event information; change the way that people can get information held on the registers to help protect the information from abuse; and modernise the Act to take account of technological and social developments. The Registrar-General is the custodian of the information contained in the New Zealand registers of life events.

2. When will the changes take effect?
The Amendment Act came into force on 25 January 2009, six months after it received the Royal assent.

3. Will the changes affect the fees?
The Amendment Act itself does not set or change the fees for the products and services provided by Births, Deaths and Marriages. Any new fees for products under the Act or changes to existing fees will be set through a separate process. Generally, our fees are set on a cost recovery basis.

The Collection and Management of Information

4. What changes does the Act propose relating to the collection and management of information?
The main changes proposed that relate to the collection and management of information are:

An enhanced power for the Registrar-General to obtain evidence to confirm the accuracy of the information provided for the registration of life events e.g. to ensure that there is a correct record of a recordable event.
The establishment of an information matching programme to reduce the number of unregistered births.
A new register to record name changes for people whose births are not recorded in New Zealand.
The Registrar-General will be able to release statistical information if it is not readily available elsewhere.
The Registrar-General will be able to arrange with equivalent office-holders in other countries to share name change and death information.
Increased penalties for offences under the Act.

5. What are the purposes of the registers?
The registers hold the information that is recorded by Births, Deaths and Marriages about births, deaths, marriages, civil unions, adoptions, sexual assignment or reassignment, and name changes that, in general, occur in New Zealand. The Amendment Act includes a definition of the purpose of those registers as providing:

A source of demographic information, and information about health, mortality and other matters important to government;
An official record of births, deaths, marriages, civil unions and name changes that can be used as evidence of those events taking place, and also of age, identity, descent, whakapapa and New Zealand citizenship.

Accessing Information on the Registers

6. What information is available on the registers now?
Generally, anyone can access their own registered information and the registered information of any other person on giving a name and paying a fee. The information is supplied in the form of a certificate or printout.

7. What will change when the Amendment Act comes into force?
Generally, anyone will still be able to access their own registered information and the registered information of any other person. If the information requested is not “historical” then reasonable identification will need to be provided. The Amendment Act also introduces a new access register and enables people to request that a non-disclosure direction be put in place on their records.

8. What is reasonable identification?
When anyone requests to access registered information that is not “historical” he or she will need to provide reasonable identification. Reasonable identification is a means of identification that is sufficient to allow the identity of that person to be established. Therefore from 25 January 2009, there will be three steps people generally need to follow when requesting a certificate or printout that is not “historical”:

Step 1

The person applying for the certificate or printout (“the applicant”) must complete the usual information that is required on the order form, but also include their names at birth (if different from their current name), date of birth and place of birth; and
Sign the order form to show that the information they have printed on the form is true and correct.

Step 2

The applicant must then approach a person from the list below (subject to certain conditions, such as that they are not a relative) to also sign the order form. This person verifies the information the applicant has printed on the form.
The applicant must show that person a government-issued photo identification (e.g. passport, drivers licence etc). The only exception to this is if the applicant’s birth is registered in New Zealand and the person has known the applicant for at least 12 months – in this case photo ID does not need to be presented.
The person must be one of the following:
- Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages
- Lawyer
- Member of the Police
- Kaumatua
- Applicant’s employer
- Justice of the Peace
- Minister of religion
- Registered Teacher
- Registered medical doctor
- Notary Public
- Commonwealth representative
- New Zealand Honorary Consul.

Step 3

Send us the completed order form with the fee by post, fax or deliver the order form to one of your offices.

9. How does the new access register work?
Anyone who requests access to registered information, with some exceptions (e.g. “historical” information), will have his or her full name recorded in the access register. Also recorded in the access register will be the date that the request was made and whether or not the request was complied with.

The subject of the registered information (or a parent if the person is under 18) or other person authorised in writing by the subject will be able to access the new register to find out the name of who has applied for access to the subject’s records. Public sector agencies will also be able to search the access register for maintenance of law purposes.

10. What is a non-disclosure direction?
A non-disclosure direction may be placed on a person’s records under certain conditions and for a particular length of time (which will be set out in regulations).

A non-disclosure direction means that, generally, only the person who is the subject of the information (or a parent if the person is under 18), or any other person authorised by the subject of the information may access registered information about the subject of the non-disclosure direction. If any other person attempts to access registered information when a non-disclosure direction is in place he or she will be advised that the information exists but that the information cannot be provided. However, a person may seek to verify any information that has been published by the subject of the record, despite a non-disclosure direction being in place on the record.

A non-disclosure direction expires after a certain period of time, and may be reinstated or withdrawn.

11. What are the penalties for existing and new offences under the Amendment Act?
There are a range of new offences and increased penalties in the Amendment Act. These include a new offence for making a false statement, or presenting any false means of identification in order to obtain information from the registers, with a penalty upon conviction of NZ$10,000.

12. Who else will get information?
Private sector organisations can receive information about registered deaths in order to remove deceased persons' names from mailing lists.

The Amendment Act expands the range of information that will be available to authorised government agencies for information matching programmes.

The Amendment Act also enables the Registrar-General to provide and receive name change and death information with overseas counterparts.

Access to Information on the Internet

13. Will there be better access to information?
The Registrar-General may allow public access to "historical" information through the Internet.

14. When will "historical" information be available through the Internet?
The availability of "Historical" information is targeted to be as close as possible to the date that the Amendment Act comes into force

15. What "historical" information will be accessible to the public?
The following table outlines the information that is defined as "historical" New Zealand records of life events.

For a birth that occurred at least 100 years ago (subject to restrictions on pre-adoptive/ pre-sex-change information) or for a still-birth 50 years ago.	Certain fields from birth records may be available through the Internet at www.dia.govt.nz. This includes name changes for persons born in New Zealand.
Where the person whose name was changed was overseas-born at least 100 years ago.	Certain fields from the records of name changes of overseas-born people may be available through the Internet at www.dia.govt.nz.
Where the death occurred at least 50 years ago, or the deceased person was born at least 80 years ago.	Certain fields from death records may be available through the Internet at www.dia.govt.nz.
Where the marriage occurred at least 80 years ago.	Certain fields from marriage records may be available through the Internet at www.dia.govt.nz.
Where the civil union occurred at least 80 years ago.	Certain fields from civil union records may be available through the Internet at www.dia.govt.nz.

16. Are there any penalties proposed in relation to publishing bulk information?
It will be an offence to publish on the Internet or any intranet any information from indexes that have been obtained from the Births, Deaths and Marriages registry, with some exceptions. Those exceptions allow people to publish index information that relates to:

themselves; or
any other person who consents to their information being published; or
any other person if the information is “historical information” (as set out above).

Any non-complying index information currently on the Internet or intranet must be removed within 14 days of the Act coming into effect.

Name Change

17. What are the changes in the Amendment Act relating to name changes?
The Amendment Act introduces a new name change certificate that will be issued only to those people:

Whose birth is not registered in New Zealand, and
Who were New Zealand citizens or permanent residents when their name change was lodged,
Where the name change was lodged after the Amendment Act came into force,
Who have paid the fee for a name change certificate.

18. Will a name change certificate show all previous name changes?

A name change certificate will show the person’s current name along with all previous name changes that have been lodged with Births, Deaths and Marriages, but only those that were lodged after the Amendment Act came into force.

If your birth is registered in New Zealand then your name change will be added to your birth information and will be shown on any subsequent birth certificates issued.

Any person’s name changes can also be added, at the person’s choice, to the information recorded about the person’s marriage or civil union that was registered in New Zealand prior to the relevant name change. The name changes will be included on the applicable marriage or civil union certificate that is subsequently issued.

Registration

19. What is the change to registering a birth?
Both parents will be required to jointly sign their child's birth registration form, whether they are in a marriage, civil union, de facto relationship or not in any legal relationship. There are some exceptions, e.g., if requiring one or other parent to sign the form would cause unwarranted distress.

Name of the Registry

20. Will Births, Deaths and Marriages change its name?
No, Births, Deaths and Marriages will not be changing its name.

21. What is the legislative history of the Amendment Act?

20 February 2007	Introduction (Bill 98–1)
1 March 2007	First reading and referral to Government Administration Committee
6 March 2007	Public submissions called for
4 May 2007	Public submissions closed
23 November 2007	Reported from Government Administration Committee
13 May 2008	Second reading
20 May 2008	Committee of the whole House (Bill 98–2)
22 July 2008	Third Reading
24 July 2008	Royal assent
25 January 2009	Commencement date

The Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Act 2008 and the Government Administration Committee’s report are both available for download on the New Zealand Parliament website.

You can buy a copy of the Amendment Act from Bennett's Government Bookshop or phone (04) 499 3433.


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Last updated: 08/04/2010