The proposed Death Approved Information Sharing Agreement is now open for public consultation.

Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages Jeff Montgomery says the agreement is designed to make things a little easier for families when someone dies.

“Dealing with the death of a loved one and winding up their affairs is difficult, and often made more so by the need to repeatedly produce official information to confirm the death.”

The proposed Death Approved Information Sharing Agreement (AISA) will clearly set out the purpose, allowed use and parties which can receive information about deaths. This sets out the legal basis that makes it simpler to safely share personal death information that the Department of Internal Affairs holds on behalf of New Zealanders.

“The information sharing agreement will better meet the needs of New Zealanders, public sector agencies and other organisations, and will allow more organisations to receive information about deaths directly,” Jeff says.

When people die in New Zealand, the law requires that the death is registered by the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages. Both government and non-government organisations need to have stringent processes in place to ensure that the correct person is noted in their databases as being deceased.

The sharing of information about deaths by the Registrar-General will reduce the number of administrative processes that whānau have to work their way through at a difficult time.

“The collective experience from the COVID19 pandemic has demonstrated the value and increased need for streamlined and integrated online services for New Zealand, particularly in times of stress and this AISA could help assist with this,” says Jeff.

Consultation is now open on the Death Approved Information Sharing Agreement. To contribute email comments to information.sharing@dia.govt.nz or write to the Policy & Privacy Team, Te Ara Manaaki, Department of Internal Affairs Level 10, 7 Waterloo Quay, Wellington 6011.

Consultation closes on 11 June 2021.

© Scoop Media