Prostitution Reform Act 2003

Operator certificates

41: Court records

You could also call this:

"What happens to your personal information when you work in the sex industry, and who can see it"

When you apply for a certificate to work in the sex industry, or if you already have one, your information is kept in court records. You can look at your own records, and so can the Registrar and the Police, but the Police can only do this if they are investigating a crime. The Registrar can use the information in your records to make statistics, as long as they do not say who you are. If you look at someone else's records, or use their information, when you are not allowed to, you can get in trouble and have to pay a fine of up to $2,000, as stated in section 41(3) which was amended by the Criminal Procedure Act 2011.

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This page was last updated on 27 May 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM197898.

40: Operator to produce certificate on request, or

"Operators must show their certificate to a police officer when asked"

42: Review of operation of Act and related matters, or

"Checking how well the prostitution laws are working in New Zealand"

Part 3Operator certificates

41Court records

Court records concerning the identity of applicants for certificates, applicants for waiver of disqualification, and certificate holders may be searched, inspected, or copied only by—
the applicant or holder concerned; and
the Registrar; and
the Police, but only for the purpose of investigating an offence.

Nothing in this section limits the power of the Registrar to prepare and supply (whether for use by the Department for Courts or any other purpose) statistical information about applicants for certificates, applicants for waiver of disqualification, and certificate holders, as long as the information is supplied in a form that does not identify individual applicants or certificate holders.
A person who, in contravention of this section, obtains or uses information that is sourced from, or purports to be sourced from, the court records referred to in this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $2,000.

Notes

Section 41(3): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).