Proposal to share information for customer-chosen services

Consultation closed 1 August 2019.

Background

DIA holds a lot of personal information

Te Tari Taiwhenua, the Department of Internal Affairs, (DIA) is the guardian of important collections of personal information about New Zealanders, including records that are considered to be taonga.  These include the birth, death, marriage and civil union registers, the citizenship registers and records about travel documents such as passports.  We also make products and services available on the basis of this information, such as certificates and passports.

We share certain personal information with other government departments so that they can improve their own services. For example, we provide information about deaths to Inland Revenue so that they can update their records and avoid sending tax demands to bereaved families after someone has died.

We’re simplifying the legislation around information sharing

DIA is working to simplify the framework of legislation that allows us to share personal information.  We want to replace most of the older agreements with a small number of Approved Information Sharing Agreements (AISAs); a newer type of agreement that is based on legislation (Order in Council). AISAs are much more flexible – one AISA can cover multiple agencies, multiple purposes and multiple information shares. 

It will also be much easier for people to see how we’re using their information - AISAs will be published on our website and the Privacy Commissioner’s website. 

We want to improve services

We’re also interested in helping other government agencies to improve their services for their customers.  We’re aware that many agencies ask their customers to get certificates and other documents from DIA so that they can prove who they are or show that they’re eligible for a service, such as enrolling a child in pre-school, or applying for a benefit like superannuation.  We would like to make it possible for a customer to give that agency permission to look at the relevant part of their DIA record, and for the agency to be able to do that with the right legal authorisation.

Overview – What we are proposing

DIA is proposing a new Customer Nominated Services Approved Information Sharing Agreement (Customer Nominated Services AISA) to enable a better customer experience and a more efficient approach to the authorised sharing of information between government agencies and other specified parties.

The parties to this proposed agreement are:

• Accident Compensation Corporation
• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, including Immigration New Zealand
• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Social Development
• New Zealand Transport Agency
• the Department of Internal Affairs
• the Registrar of Motor Vehicles
• the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages
• the Road User Charges Collector.

A Customer Nominated Services AISA would enable more efficient and effective public services and an improved experience for customers accessing these services.  It would reduce multiple requests for the same information, remove the need to provide physical copies of information, and reduce time delays in the provision of services to the public. It would also improve the quality and consistency of information that agencies hold about an individual and make it easier to detect issues such as identity fraud.

Related Documents

Detailed information about the proposed AISA, the public consultation process and our Privacy Impact Assessment can be found below:

• Draft Authorised Information Sharing Agreement (PDF, 1.1MB)
• Privacy Impact Assessment: Customer Nominated Services Information Sharing Agreement (PDF, 1MB)
• Public Discussion Document: Proposal to share information for customer-chosen services (PDF, 1MB)

We’d like your feedback

DIA invites the public to provide their views on the proposed AISA being established under Part 9A of the Privacy Act 1993 (the Privacy Act).

The proposed AISA will provide the legal basis to enable effective information sharing to provide delivery of customer nominated services.

We invite feedback on the following specific areas:

1. New uses for information sharing

2. When information will be shared

3. Range of personal information to be shared under the proposed Agreement

4. Proposed privacy protections

More information can be found here: 

• Public Discussion Document: Proposal to share information for customer-chosen services (PDF, 1MB)

Give Feedback

Submissions closed 1 August 2019.

You can make a submission about the proposed Customer Nominated Services AISA by:

• Writing a submission and sending it to Information.Sharing@dia.govt.nz with the subject line “Information sharing agreement discussion”; or
• Posting it to:

Policy & Privacy Team, Te Ara Manaaki
Department of Internal Affairs
Level 3, 45 Pipitea Street
Wellington 6011

What we will do with your submissions

Following the submission process we will prepare a report for the Minister of Internal Affairs to make recommendations about the proposed Customer Nominated Services AISA to Cabinet. Your submissions will be used as input to this report.  

As the lead agency developing the proposed AISA, DIA may include your submission, in whole or in part, when publishing feedback on the discussion process. Your personal details will not be disclosed.

If you do not want your submission published please let us know within your submission.

Release of submissions under the Official Information Act 1982

Your submission may be subject to release under the Official Information Act 1982.

If you want your submission to be withheld under the Official Information Act, please tell us in your submission why you think it should not be released if requested.