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Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021

Searches and disclosure of information - Disclosure and sharing of information - Disclosure of statistical information

120: Registrar-General may provide information for statistical purposes or for health, historical, or demographic research

You could also call this:

"The Registrar-General can share information to help with research and statistics, while protecting people's privacy."

Illustration for Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021

You can ask the Registrar-General to search for or provide information for certain purposes. The Registrar-General can help with gathering statistics, historical research, demographic research, or health research. You need to be acting on behalf of a public sector agency, a body, or a person to make this request. You can only get the information if it does not relate to particular individuals. The information can also be provided if it is about people who are dead or were born at least 120 years ago. The Registrar-General can provide the information if they think the public benefit is more important than individual privacy. When deciding whether to provide the information, the Registrar-General must consider several things. These include how many people's privacy will be affected and how much their privacy will be affected. The Registrar-General also thinks about whether an ethics committee has approved the research and how the information will be held and used. The Registrar-General can impose conditions on how the information is used to protect people's privacy. Before providing information about people who are dead or were born a long time ago, the Registrar-General must consult with the Privacy Commissioner and consider their comments.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7316519.

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Topics:
Health and wellbeing > Public healthHealth and wellbeing > Healthcare servicesRights and equality > PrivacyGovernment and voting > Government departments
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119: Information recorded under this Act may be used to update information kept under Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act 2004, or

"Birth and name change info can update reproductive technology records."

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121: Disclosure of statistical information, or

"Registrar-General can share interesting public stats from the registry"

Part 4Searches and disclosure of information
Disclosure and sharing of information: Disclosure of statistical information

120Registrar-General may provide information for statistical purposes or for health, historical, or demographic research

  1. A person acting on behalf of a public sector agency, a body, or a person may request that the Registrar-General search for or provide information for the purpose of—

  2. gathering statistics; or
    1. historical research; or
      1. demographic research; or
        1. health research.

          1. The Registrar-General may search for or provide the information requested only if—

          2. the request does not relate to particular individuals and the person will not retain any information relating to particular individuals; or
            1. the information relates to particular individuals who are dead or were born at least 120 years ago; or
              1. the Registrar-General is satisfied that, in searching for or providing the information, the public benefit outweighs the effect on individual privacy.

                1. For the purposes of subsection (2)(c), the Registrar-General must take into account the following matters:

                2. the number of individuals whose privacy will be affected:
                  1. the degree to which each individual’s privacy will be affected:
                    1. whether an ethics review committee or a similar body has considered and approved the research and, if so, the persons making up the committee or body and the type of work it undertakes:
                      1. how the agency, body, or person undertaking the research proposes to hold, use, and, if relevant, dispose of the information obtained.

                        1. The Registrar-General may impose any conditions on the holding, use, publication, and disposal of information provided under this section that the Registrar-General considers appropriate to prevent or minimise any effect on individual privacy.

                        2. Before exercising any powers under this section for the purposes of subsection (2)(b)(ii), the Registrar-General must—

                        3. consult, and invite comments from, the Privacy Commissioner; and
                          1. take those comments into account.

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