Explanatory note
This note is not part of the order, but is intended to indicate its general effect.
This order, which comes into force on 20 April 2023, approves an information sharing agreement entered into under the Privacy Act 2020 (the Act) between the following:
the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand:
the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA):
the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet:
Fire and Emergency New Zealand:
the Ministry for Ethnic Communities:
the Ministry for Pacific Peoples:
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade:
the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships:
Veterans’ Affairs New Zealand:
any party that belongs to one of the specified classes of agencies to which the agreement may apply (see clause 6) and has been named as a party in a schedule to the agreement.
DIA is the lead agency for the agreement and, after the agreement is entered into, DIA may—
agree to an agency that is a member of a class of agencies listed in clause 6 becoming a party to the agreement; and
name that agency as a party in a schedule to the agreement.
Under the agreement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade may share information about deaths outside New Zealand with the Registrar-General and DIA, and the Registrar-General may share death information and overseas death information with other parties to the agreement. The Registrar-General may also share information about births, marriages, civil unions, and non-disclosure directions with any party that is a mortality review committee.
The sharing of this information between the parties is intended to facilitate—
the assessment of eligibility for and entitlement to receive public services; and
the accurate and efficient delivery of public services by the Registrar-General and the other public sector agencies that are parties; and
the provision by the Registrar-General of accurate death information and overseas death information to parties that are New Zealand private sector agencies for their use in accordance with the agreement and clause 10; and
the conduct of mortality reviews by mortality review committees; and
the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of offences, and the conduct of civil proceedings, including judicial review.
The purposes for which the personal information may be shared (see clause 7) include ensuring that a person associated with an individual is not required to provide a party with death records when the individual dies, enabling records to be updated, and ceasing or changing a product, service, or personal entitlement or other thing that was being provided to the individual who has died or to a person associated with that individual. Other purposes include conducting mortality reviews and enabling the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of offences and the conduct of civil proceedings.
The agreement replaces existing information matching agreements and memoranda of understanding between the Registrar-General and certain agencies. Some of the purposes for which information may be used under the agreement are new or differ from those in the agreements being replaced. For example, the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of offences, and the conduct of civil proceedings is a new purpose for which information may be shared.
Various types of information shared under the agreement may be subject to other specific requirements relating to privacy. For example, section 82 and Schedule 5 of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 impose requirements relating to information required by, and provided to, a mortality review committee, and the agreement does not affect those.
This order inserts into Schedule 2 of the Act information regarding the agreement that is required to be inserted under section 147 of the Act.
Regulatory impact statement
The Department of Internal Affairs produced a regulatory impact statement on 27 July 2021 to help inform the decisions taken by the Government relating to the contents of this instrument.
A copy of this regulatory impact statement can be found at—
Issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2019.
Date of notification in Gazette: 23 March 2023.
This order is administered by the Department of Internal Affairs.