This order, which comes into force on 12 May 2020, adds information concerning organisation parts to the lists of information in Schedule 4 of the New Zealand Business Number Act 2016. The effect of this is that businesses in New Zealand that are organised into parts will be able to choose to have a unique identifying number assigned to a part (or parts) of the business, and for that information to be displayed on the New Zealand Business Number Register.

In most cases, a New Zealand Business Number identifying the principal business is sufficient to enable a business to interact with other organisations and accurately identify itself. For others, it is useful to be able to represent different parts of the business; for example, certain internal business units or offices in different geographic locations.

The ability to identify different parts of a business with certainty will also contribute to the Government’s proposal to develop contact tracing systems in response to the effects of COVID-19. Accordingly, the order will come into force earlier than 28 days after the date of its notification in the Gazette.