Dear Mr Easton,

The Department of Internal Affairs acknowledges receipt of your Official Information Act request below.

At this stage the Department is unsure if it can meet your request within the statutory 20 day time frame. If it is necessary to extend that time frame, we will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

We will also contact you should there be any costs that you may be required to pay in association with meeting this request.

Yours sincerely,

Ross McPherson
Manager, Business Assurance
Branch Development and Support
Service Delivery and Operations Branch
DDI: 04-382-3516
[mobile number]-232-2678

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Dear Mr Easton,

 

I refer to your e-mail dated 1 October 2012, in which you requested the
following information pursuant to the Official Information Act 1982:

 

I would like to request the number of instances of errors in official
documents commonly used to prove identity.  I am doing this under the
Official information act 1982.

 

Errors may include amongst other things incorrect Name, Date of Birth, or
Place of Birth.  Documents include, passports, birth certificates and
marriage certificates amongst others.

 

If I could have the information from the previous three years collated by
month and type of error it would be appreciated.  Please contact me via
the fyi.org.nz website if you would like me to further clarify my
request.  I would prefer to receive an electronic response.

 

For the purposes of this request the Department of Internal Affairs (the
Department) has interpreted the three year time period as being 1 October
2009 to 30 September 2012.

 

The Department holds error information relating to the issuance of
Passports, Citizenship Certificates (relating to the Grant of Citizenship,
Citizenship by Descent and Confirmation of Citizenship), and birth, death,
marriage and civil union certificates.

 

The information requested, broken down by month over the three year period
is attached, grouped by document type -  Passports, Citizenship and BDM.

 

However, please note the following:

 

§  No information is available on error types for Citizenship Certificates
relating to Citizenship by Descent and Confirmation of Citizenship. 
However, that breakdown for Citizenship Certificates relating the Grant of
Citizenship is provided.

 

§  The Department has provided a breakdown of the types of errors of BDM
related documents in the form of "Informant Errors" and "Clerical
Errors".  An "Informant Error" is where a customer has provided incorrect
information which was registered, and as a result was subsequently
included on a certificate.  A "Clerical Error" is where a customer has
provided correct information but either a BDM staff member or one of its
agents recorded it incorrectly on a registration or a staff member or
agent has incorrectly interpreted handwriting.

 

§  The Department is satisfied that due to the way error information is
recorded in Births, Deaths and Marriages providing more specific detail on
error types would require the interrogation of more than 12,000 database
entries to determine the detail of the error type.  The Department is
satisfied that this would require substantial research and collation, and
therefore refuses to provide that information pursuant to section 18(f) of
the Official Information Act.  Section 18(f) states:

            18.        Refusal of requests

                  A request made in accordance with [1]section 12 may be
refused only for 1 or more of the following reasons, namely:

       (f) that the information requested cannot be made available without
substantial collation or research

 

§  Furthermore, information on whether an error is informant or clerical
for October, November and December 2009 are not available.  However, the
total number of errors for those months has been provided.

 

For comparison purposes, the overall issuance figures for Passports,
Citizenship, birth, death, marriage, and civil union certificates over
this time period are:

 

§  Passports 1 October 2009 - 30 September 2012 = 1,642,158

§  Births, deaths and marriages related certificates 1 October 2009 - 30
September 2012 = 780,809

§  Citizenship certificates 1 October 2009 - 30 September 2012 = 86,239

 

You have the right, pursuant to section 28 of the Official Information
Act, to request that an Ombudsman investigate the Department's refusal to
provide further detail on error type.  Any such request should be made
directly to the Office of the Ombudsmen.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

Ross McPherson

Manager, Business Assurance

Branch Development and Support

Service Delivery and Operations Branch

DDI:  04-382-3516

Mobile:  027-232-2678

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References

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