Minister's final report to Parliament – October 2016
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Peter Dunne presented his report on the review of the access provisions in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act to Parliament on 20 October 2016. View or download the report here:
You can read the Minister’s Cabinet paper on the final outcome of the review here:
- Cabinet paper: Review of access provisions in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 (PDF, 693kb)
The report fulfils a requirement to review the operation of access provisions in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 after five years, which Parliament put in place as part of changes it made in 2009.
Mr Dunne wanted to thank all the individuals and organisations that had taken the time to make submissions on the Discussion Paper and the Proposals Paper.
“The submissions highlight how much the public value access to BDM records to help establish their identity, to trace their family history and for many other legitimate reasons.”
The report’s recommendations reflect that the majority of submissions support the basic principles underpinning access to BDM records, but they also recognise users’ expectations about how they want to access BDM information have changed since the current rules were introduced in 2009.
Alongside the review, the Minister of Internal Affairs has asked the Department to consider what other amendments could be made alongside the changes to the access provisions to help future-proof the Act to support future service enhancements for all BDM services, not just access to BDM information.
- Return to BDM Review homepage
