The Department of Internal Affairs

Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs

Building a safe, prosperous and respected nation



 

Regulatory system information: Civil Registration (Births, Deaths, Relationships and Name change registrations)

Description of the regulatory system

System objectives/purposes

The Civil Registration regulatory system aims to:

  • outline the requirements for the recording, verifying and maintenance of identity and life event related information
  • set out how and when civil registration information may be collected; used; shared or made available to end users;
  • set out how civil registration information collected is to be displayed in terms of both official registers and on documentation (such as a birth, death or marriage certificates).

Key statutes

Key regulations

Note: Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) also performs minor functions under a range of other Public and Private Acts e.g. Electoral Act 1994 and the Sullivan Birth Registration Act 2014.

Brief description of what the system does

The Civil Registrations (BDM) regulatory system is responsible for a range of activities relating to the recording and maintenance of life event information; and the provision of access to the registered information and associated documents for all births, deaths and marriages (BDM) occurring in New Zealand.

The capture of this information is required to enable individuals to build evidence of their identity and to support the efficacy of government agencies to plan for the future, particularly in relation to demographic forecasting and health research.

Information is accessed by individuals and a wide range of government agencies and external organisations.

Appointment of Marriage celebrants and registration of funeral directors and medical professionals is collected for the purposes of recording demise and cause of death.

The civil registration system is one of the oldest regulatory systems of government in New Zealand and provides verification of cornerstone identity information that is relied on throughout society. 

Agencies involved in the Civil Registration regulatory system

  • The Department of Internal Affairs (the Department) has the main policy and delivery responsibilities under the overall Civil Registration) regulatory system.  
  • The Registrar-General, an independent statutory role under the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 (BDMRR Act) who is appointed by the Department of Internal Affairs has responsibilities for the registration system as a whole.
  • The Ministry of Justice has policy responsibilities in relation to Marriages and Civil Unions, Human Assisted Reproductive Technology, and Adoption. 
  • The Ministry has minor delivery responsibilities for Marriage and Civil Unions relating to performing registry office ceremonies, but these will cease from 1 July 2019.
  • Other agencies and individuals who play a part in the regulatory system include:
    • Office of the Privacy Commissioner, regarding information sharing
    • Marriage Celebrants appointed by the Registrar-General ensure Marriages and Civil unions are conducted within the law.
    • Fertility Clinics who provide HART regime information
    • Oranga Tamariki – in relation to adoptions in New Zealand, and as the certifying authority for adoptions that comply with the Hague Adoption Convention
    • Ministry of Social Development and Inland Revenue Department
    • The Family Court in relation to adoptions, to determining applications from individuals to change the sex recorded on their birth record.
    • Professionals providing support and advice to individuals (i.e. funeral directors, celebrants or midwives)
    • Umbrella Groups who represent interested groups (i.e. Celebrants Association, New Zealand Funeral Directors Association (FDANZ); Royal Federation of JPs or Genealogical Society of New Zealand)
    • Life Events Stakeholder groups (SmartStart and End of Life)
    • Cross agency services, including Smart Start and Te Hokinga a Wairua services around the life events of Birth, and Death.
    • Hospitals, Midwives and Medical Practitioners who provide preliminary notices of birth and death.
  • Regular meetings are held with government agencies and umbrella groups and engagement takes place through industry events (e.g. FDANZ conference).
  • The Registrar-General convenes quarterly meetings with the Ministry of Health and Statistics New Zealand to ensure the wider Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) eco-system operates well. 
  • The Registrar-General and ManagerDesign and Uptake convene a monthly Stewardship Group meeting of key organisations involved in SmartStart, Te Hokinga a Wairua End of Life Service and Death Documents.  This includes the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Health, the Accident Compensation Corporation, the Ministry of Justice, Inland Revenue, the New Zealand Law Society, FDANZ, the Midwifes Council, and College of General Practitioners.
  • The Registrar-General and ManagerDesign and Uptake link in with the Service Innovation Reference Group and Service Innovation Working Group around cross-agency services.
  • International collaboration with overseas civil registration authorities and international agencies such as United Nations (UN).

Regulated parties and non-government stakeholders

  • Every person who is born, married, civilly–united, dies, is adopted, undergoes fertility treatment or changes their name.   New Zealand citizens, residents and visitors.
  • Funeral directors
  • Health Officials (i.e. Midwives)
  • Marriage Celebrants
  • Fertility Clinics
  • Service providers
  • Organisations that use and share death and genealogical information
  • Genealogical services
  • Engagement between system agencies and regulated parties
  • Regular meetings with umbrella groups
  • Regular newsletters and email alerts
  • Information provided to individuals is updated on external websites
  • Ongoing service design to understand customer pain-points and opportunity for innovation.
  • Blog posting on Digital.govt.nz and other social media

Fitness-for-purpose assessment

Reviews/assessments of the Civil Registration regulatory system

There have been no recent reviews of the Civil Registration regulatory system as a whole.

A review of the access provisions in the BDMRR Act was completed in 2016.   The report on this review fulfilled a requirement to review the operation of its access provisions after five years, which Parliament put in place as part of changes it made in 2009. 

Further information on this is available at: Review of access provisions in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 (PDF, 692KB)

Following on from this the BDMRR Amendment Bill was put before the house. The purpose of the Bill is to give effect to recommendations that arose arising out of the review of access provisions and the Law Commission’s review of burial and cremation law. The Bill also included clauses that would allow individuals to change the sex on their birth certificate through an administrative process based on self-identification. The Bill has been deferred. Over 2019 the Minister will consider approaches to amend the Bill.

The Department is mid-way through a multi-year transformation programme which is reviewing policies, processes of civil registrations and other life events, and information-sharing mechanisms.

Review/assessment findings

Effectiveness

The extent to which the system delivers the intended outcomes and impacts

The Department is responsible for a range of activities relating to the recording and maintenance of life event information; and the provision of access to the registered information and associated documents for all births, deaths and marriages (BDM) occurring in New Zealand. The capture of this information is required to enable individuals to build evidence of their identity and to support the efficacy of government agencies to plan for the future, particularly in relation to demographic forecasting and health research. Information is accessed by individuals and a wide range of government agencies and external organisations.

This regulatory function is enabled through various pieces of legislation, each of which contains a clear purpose statement that outlines the requirements for the recording, verifying and maintenance of identity related information associated with the functions below. The legislation sets out how and when information may be collected; how such information may be used; how such information may be shared or made available to end users; and how information collected is to be displayed in terms of both official registers and on documentation (such as a birth, death or marriage certificates).

The Department has a clear mandate and direction for its functions. It has built and developed effective relationships with key stakeholders; this can be seen in the engagement between the Department and groups such as the Celebrants Association New Zealand, the New Zealand Funeral Directors Association. Wider consultation with the general public was undertaken as part of the BDM fees change process, and as part of the BDMRR Bill.  Service Design work is heavily influenced by engagement through stakeholder groups.

To help individuals comply with legislation the Department has introduced more digital channels (for example SmartStart), as well as trialling digital assist options in locations where the uptake of a digital service was low. This enables direct engagement with customers to identify and resolve any impediments to using a service channel in a timely manner. In addition, the Department has committed to ensuring customers understand their roles and responsibilities. All website information relating to Births, Deaths and Marriages was completely updated in mid-2016 using customer-based design principles to make information more accessible to users and changes have been made since based on identified customer needs.

There are high compliance rates with the legislation with very high rates of birth and death registration. New Zealand is seen as an exemplar of a well-functioning civil registration system and is acknowledged as a world leader in providing digital civil registration services.

Efficiency

The extent to which the system minimizes unintended consequences and undue costs and burdens

For the recording of births we work closely with the health sector and parents of newborn children to ensure a high level of compliance and accuracy of information.

In maintaining death, marriage and civil union records consultation and support is provided to Funeral Directors and Marriage Celebrants to ensure a high level of compliance is achieved.

The Department is proactive when reminding those who fail to comply within the mandated timeframes of their responsibilities. This is achieved through direct communication with customers when required. Examples include; ‘Reminder to Register’ notices are sent to mothers of newborn children, we work with the Health sector to clear any unregistered deaths and regular contact is maintained with marriage/civil union celebrants in regard to registration of marriages/civil unions.

Birth registrations have very high compliance rates internationally: the customer-centred design of services means 96% of births are registered online: parents find it very easy to register a birth.

Marriage licences may now also be ordered online, after work was done to remove barriers to uptake.

The Department updated the website information relating to BDM compliance activities in mid-2016 using customer-based design principles to make information more accessible to users. This is to enable customers to see their legal responsibilities as well as how they are able to comply with legislation.

The Department acknowledges that the interplay between the BDMRR Act, the Privacy Act 1993 and the Official Information Act 1982 is not fully understood by the general public. This causes some challenges as members of the public expect to be able to ask for a source document (i.e. birth record) under the Privacy Act. However, under the BDMRR Act access to this type of data is restricted and requires payment to be made by those who can access it. In addition, historic and/or closed or restricted access records, where by the nature of the information held on a particular register, may not be disclosed outside of the person to whom it relates.

Durability and resilience

How well the system copes with variation, change and pressures

The requirement to register births, deaths and marriages has remained consistent over a significant period of time, and therefore legislative changes to functions are infrequent. As society has changed, both the ways in which customers want to interact with Government as well as cultural changes, have required some amendments to legislation. These amendments have mainly related to amending legislation to provide for different modes of completing transactions (i.e. how a statutory declaration is completed), or when societal changes have required amendments or new legislation to be enacted (e.g. Civil Unions, same sex marriages and the use of Human Assisted Reproductive Technology).

In addition, while the requirements to document and hold identity information remains, it is how such information is collated, shared and used which has changed over time. A key enabler of the widespread sharing of identity information will be having appropriate information sharing regimes across government, and widespread public support that information held by government departments should be shared on their behalf in order to give them easy access to government services.

Such sharing is permissive in a controlled manner, and subject to independent oversight by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. In that sense, the frameworks are in place to enable sharing. Any major extension of information sharing will need to meet the needs of the Government and public.

Fairness and accountability

How well the system respects rights and delivers good process

Legislation is clear in how the Department must register all births, deaths and marriages. It is also sets out how individuals have responsibilities to ensure that registration is completed within a specific timescale. We work closely with stakeholders to ensure they are aware of their roles and responsibilities, as well as with individuals by providing information in a clear and concise manner.

The BDMRRA has specific provisions to enable people to correct errors in their recorded details, to formally change their name and/or the sex noted on their birth record. Timing of passage of this Act will need to be decided by the Government. There remains a public debate over gender identity and the processes to manage and amend these under the Act.

We have introduced new technology and channels to ensure that customers are able to easily register births at their convenience online, while also retaining paper-based avenues for customers who wish to use them. By using the birth notices provided by hospitals and midwives we are able to directly contact mothers to encourage them to register the birth of their baby, if they fail to do so.

The Department has amended practices to put the customer at the centre of the process and empower them to be able to meet their obligations. In addition, the website information relating to BDM was updated in mid-2016 using customer-based design principles to make information more accessible to users.

The Department has a BAU human-centred service design function: engagement with users of services and stakeholders is part of BAU.

Plans for regulatory and operational improvements

Key regulatory changes planned for 2019/2020

Changes to access (https://www.dia.govt.nz/Ministers-final-report-to-Parliament) and other provisions have been approved by Cabinet and are included in the deferred Bill.

Recent review of access provisions has been undertaken with public consultation. A small number of legislative changes are progressing that will improve the overall operational administration of the main Act and also provide access for the public to Historic Record data sets in a way aligned with similar overseas BDM jurisdictions.

The BDMRR Amendment Bill included changes that update and amend the BDMRR Act and give effect to recommendations arising out of both a review of access provisions and the Law Commission’s review of burial and cremation law. The Bill also included clauses that would allow individuals to change the sex on their birth certificate through an administrative process based on self-identification. The Bill has been deferred due to issues associated with the self-identification clauses that were added to the Bill at Select Committee stage, after public submissions had closed.

A review of Burial and Cremation Law conducted by the Law Commission may lead to regulatory changes in the future.

Key service design and operational changes planned for 2019/2020

  • Further technology-based improvements are being scoped either as stand-alone projects or as part of the Department’s wider Transformation Programme which will support digital engagement with customers seeking to access BDM products and services
  • The Department is developing a programme to back capture and digitise more birth information, with a view to enable a greater volume of material to be made available in digital format. This will enable quicker access to birth certificates and more complete information for research projects and analytical use
  • In addition, the Department continues to work with other agencies and stakeholders to collect and use BDM information through integrated service delivery initiatives, such as SmartStart, and Te Hokinga ā Wairua end of life service.
  • We work with key Māori stakeholders and/or representative groups to ensure that the needs of Māori customers are considered as part of our service design work.
  • Proposed replacement/upgrade of aged technology and poorly integrated systems will support and underpin the current work on improving the delivery of online services.