New Zealand Legislation: Acts

52 Deposit with Registrar-General of death certificates issued outside New Zealand

• (1) Subject to this section, any person may, on payment of the prescribed fee and in the manner prescribed by regulations made under this Act, deposit with the Registrar-General a death certificate issued outside New Zealand in respect of the death outside New Zealand, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, of a New Zealand citizen or of a person ordinarily resident in New Zealand.

  (2) Where any person delivers to the Registrar-General, for deposit under subsection (1) of this section, a document that purports to be a death certificate to which that subsection applies, the Registrar-General shall, if satisfied that the document appears to be such a certificate, accept it for deposit and record the information contained in it.

  (3) Where a death certificate to which subsection (1) of this section applies is not in the English language, the Registrar-General shall not accept it for deposit unless it is accompanied by a translation of that death certificate into the English language.

  (4) The Registrar-General shall not be responsible for the authenticity of any death certificate deposited under this section nor for the truth of any information contained in any such death certificate.

  (5) Where a death certificate is deposited under this section, the Registrar-General may, on payment of the prescribed fee, issue a written statement—

  • (a) Stating that that death certificate is, under this section, deposited with the Registrar-General; and

  • (b) Giving the information contained in that death certificate; but

  • (c) Stating that the Registrar-General is not responsible for the authenticity of that death certificate nor for the truth of any information contained in that death certificate.

  (6) Where a death certificate is deposited under this section with the Registrar-General at a time when the Registrar-General has access to a computer system on which information relating to births is recorded, the Registrar-General shall—

  • (a) Take all reasonable steps to find out if information relating to the person's birth is recorded on the system; and

  • (b) If so, ensure that there is recorded, with but not as part of that information, the fact that a death certificate issued outside New Zealand has been deposited but the recording of that fact shall note that the death certificate has not been authenticated.

  (6A) Sections 74 and 75 apply to information provided by the Registrar under subsection (5).

  (7) Nothing in this section limits or affects the provisions of sections 48(3)(b) and 50 of this Act.

  Section 52(6A): inserted, on 24 January 2009, by section 19 of the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Act 2008 (2008 No 48).