Proposed amendments

The birth, death and marriage (BDM) registers have been shrouded in "practical obscurity" through much of their life. Anyone could access the registers, but it usually required going to the registry in person.

It's now a lot easier - you can request a copy of the information by email or phone. And once you've got hold of someone's details there are many things you can do with them - both honest and dishonest.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff notes: "The opportunities for secondary use and misuse of personal information held on public registers have multiplied."

The BDMRR Bill

The government proposed wide-sweeping changes to how New Zealand handled its BDM information earlier this year.

Some of the amendments aimed to tighten access to the registers; others updated the governing Act to reflect improvements in technology as well as social changes. The alterations formed "The Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill" (BDMRR).

The BDMRR Bill set out to restrict access to:

• Birth records less than 100 years old.
• Marriage records less than 80 years old.
• Death records where the person died less than 50 years ago (or where the dead person was born less than 80 years ago).

The BDMRR Bill stated: "Restricting public access to the registers is likely to make it more difficult for certain types of identity fraud to be committed."

Increased penalties for offences - such as a $10,000 fine for illegal access to, or distributing information from, a register - underscored the changes.

What happens overseas?

In her submission to the Government Administration Committee, Marie Shroff pointed out all the Australian states, 10 of the 13 Canadian provinces, and the great majority of US states had restricted access to their registers.

The UK maintains open registers; but the Privacy Commission points out that there's less information recorded on those registers than in New Zealand.

In the UK, the General Register Office will soon begin releasing information on the death registers to the Police, government agencies and private companies. It believes that greater broadcasting of this information will reduce the number of fraudsters using the identities of the deceased.

In New Zealand, the Registrar-General will be able to disclose death information to government agencies and private companies under the BDMRR Bill.