Marriages of minors 2010 - 2011
Phil Lyth made this Official Information request to Department of Internal Affairs
Department of Internal Affairs did not have the information requested.
From: Phil Lyth
Dear Department of Internal Affairs,
1. I request information on the marriages of minors (persons aged 16 - 17 years) in 2010 and 2011 and the related applications for licences.
2. I am happy to amend this request if that facilitates your
response, and/or discuss the reason I am making it. Please contact me in this case - 027 68 68 645. (I refer to the proposed Members Bill "Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment Bill" as shown on the Parliament website.
3. I understand from Statistics NZ that in 2010 and 2011 there were registered marriages of:
- 2010 72 female minors and 16 male minors
- 2011 59 female minors and 13 male minors
4. I request as follows:
5. For the 131 female minors, the age of the grooms, by bands
- the number of grooms 16 - 17 years (ie also a minor)
- the number of grooms 18 - 19 years
- the number of grooms 20 - 25 years
- the number of grooms 26 years and over
6. For the 29 male minors, the age of the brides, by bands
- the number of brides 16 - 17 years (ie also a minor)
- the number of brides 18 - 19 years
- the number of brides 20 - 25 years
- the number of brides 26 years and over
7. For #8, I exclude all marriages where both parties were born in New Zealand and were ordinarily resident in New Zealand when making application for the licence.
8. For each remaining marriage, I request the country of birth and the country of usual residence of both the bride and the groom.
9. I was considering asking you to separate the data requested in #5 and #6 into two groups, one group being the marriages where both parties were born in and usually resident in New Zealand; and the other group the remaining marriages. If it is straightforward enough to compile this, please do so.
10. Finally, I request information regarding all cases since 1 Jan 2010 where the Registrar or their staff may not have been fully satisfied, where one party was a minor, that both the bride and groom were freely and fully giving consent to the application and marriages. How many such cases were there? What actions were taken?
Re Section 12 of the OIA, I am a NZ citizen in Wellington
Yours faithfully,
Philip Lyth
From: Telephon Telephon
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Philip
Thank you for your enquiry.
We have forwarded your email to our Births, Deaths and Marriages team ([email address]).
They will respond to you as soon as possible. If you would like to contact the team via phone please call 0800 22 52 52 or (+64 4) 474 8150.
Kind Regards,
Customer Services Team
Service Delivery and Operations
Department of Internal Affairs - Te Tari Taiwhenua
Phone: (+64 4) 495 7200
www.dia.govt.nz
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From: bdm nz
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Philip
Thank you for your email.
It has been forwarded to the appropriate staff member, who will respond
within five working days.
Our Contact Centre is open Monday - Thursday 8.00am - 7.00pm; Friday
9.00am - 7.00pm and Saturday 9.00am - 2.00pm.
If you have any further enquiries, please contact us again by email or
phone Call Free (NZ) 0800 22 52 52 or if overseas (+64 4) 463 9362, or
visit our website: <[1]http://www.bdm.govt.nz/>.
Kind regards
David Baird
Client Information Officer - Kaipûrongo Kiritaki
Births, Deaths and Marriages Office - Whānautanga, Matenga, Mārenatanga
Department of Internal Affairs - Te Tari Taiwhenua
>
>
>
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From: Phil Lyth
Dear bdm nz,
You acknowledged my Official Information Request on the marriages of minors at the start of September.
Can I please get an update.
The request and correspondence can be seen at http://fyi.org.nz/request/marriages_of_m...
Yours sincerely,
Phil Lyth
From: bdm nz
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Philip
Thank you again for your email.
We apologise for the delay in respond to you query.
Due to the nature of your enquiry, it has been forwarded to the
appropriate team member, who will respond with an update shortly.
Once again we apologise about the delay and any inconvenience this may
have caused you.
If you have any further enquiries, please contact us again by email or
phone Call Free (NZ) 0800 22 52 52 or if overseas (+64 4) 463 9362, or
visit our website: <[1]http://www.bdm.govt.nz/>.
Our Contact Centre is open Monday - Thursday 8.00am - 7.00pm; Friday
9.00am - 7.00pm and Saturday 9.00am - 2.00pm.
Kind regards
Nicole Wall
Client Information Officer - Kaipûrongo Kiritaki
Births, Deaths and Marriages Office - Whānautanga, Matenga, Mārenatanga
Department of Internal Affairs - Te Tari Taiwhenua
show quoted sections
From: Vaughan Millar
Department of Internal Affairs
Dear Philip
Sorry for the delay responding to your request.
As discussed on the phone:
· Drilling down into the data would require substantial effort for
which we do not have the same resources as Statistics New Zealand.
· With regards to applications for licences the Births, Deaths,
Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 is prescriptive about
what information may be accessed, how and for what fee. Putting aside the
legislation it would once again require substantial effort to locate those
applications across our network of 58 Registry Offices.
· Minors require parental consent as a part of our usual
procedures. If after the marriage there was found to be an absence of
consent to enter in the marriage we would suggest they take the matter to
the Family Court under section 29 of the Family Proceedings Act to have
the marriage declared void ab initio – which is most uncommon and I’m not
aware of any such occurrence within the last few years. If consent was
required but not given that alone would not void the marriage (section
18(7) of the Marriage Act) – our office does not record such cases, if
any.
Please contact me if you have any further questions.
Noted here your original request emailed to our office:
Dear Department of Internal Affairs,
1. I request information on the marriages of minors (persons aged
16 - 17 years) in 2010 and 2011 and the related applications for
licences.
2. I am happy to amend this request if that facilitates your
response, and/or discuss the reason I am making it. Please contact
me in this case - 027 68 68 645. (I refer to the proposed Members
Bill "Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment
Bill" as shown on the Parliament website.
3. I understand from Statistics NZ that in 2010 and 2011 there were
registered marriages of:
- 2010 72 female minors and 16 male minors
- 2011 59 female minors and 13 male minors
4. I request as follows:
5. For the 131 female minors, the age of the grooms, by bands
- the number of grooms 16 - 17 years (ie also a minor)
- the number of grooms 18 - 19 years
- the number of grooms 20 - 25 years
- the number of grooms 26 years and over
6. For the 29 male minors, the age of the brides, by bands
- the number of brides 16 - 17 years (ie also a minor)
- the number of brides 18 - 19 years
- the number of brides 20 - 25 years
- the number of brides 26 years and over
7. For #8, I exclude all marriages where both parties were born in
New Zealand and were ordinarily resident in New Zealand when making
application for the licence.
8. For each remaining marriage, I request the country of birth and
the country of usual residence of both the bride and the groom.
9. I was considering asking you to separate the data requested in
#5 and #6 into two groups, one group being the marriages where both
parties were born in and usually resident in New Zealand; and the
other group the remaining marriages. If it is straightforward
enough to compile this, please do so.
10. Finally, I request information regarding all cases since 1 Jan
2010 where the Registrar or their staff may not have been fully
satisfied, where one party was a minor, that both the bride and
groom were freely and fully giving consent to the application and
marriages. How many such cases were there? What actions were taken?
Re Section 12 of the OIA, I am a NZ citizen in Wellington
Yours faithfully,
Philip Lyth
Regards
Vaughan Millar
BDM ext 4544
DDI 04 382 3544
From: Nicole Wall
Sent: Monday, 26 November 2012 4:33 p.m.
To: BDM Escalated Enquiries
Subject: RE: FW: Official Information Act request - Marriages of minors
2010 - 2011
Dear Philip
Thank you again for your email.
We apologise for the delay in respond to you query.
Due to the nature of your enquiry, it has been forwarded to the
appropriate team member, who will respond with an update shortly.
Once again we apologise about the delay and any inconvenience this may
have caused you.
If you have any further enquiries, please contact us again by email or
phone Call Free (NZ) 0800 22 52 52 or if overseas (+64 4) 463 9362, or
visit our website: <http://www.bdm.govt.nz/>.
Our Contact Centre is open Monday - Thursday 8.00am - 7.00pm; Friday
9.00am - 7.00pm and Saturday 9.00am - 2.00pm.
Kind regards
Nicole Wall
Client Information Officer - Kaipûrongo Kiritaki
Births, Deaths and Marriages Office - Whānautanga, Matenga, Mārenatanga
Department of Internal Affairs - Te Tari Taiwhenua
show quoted sections
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Phil Lyth left an annotation ()
Prior to receipt of the response, earlier today I received a most helpful phone call from Vaughan Miller.
He seems to be a key contact nationally for Registrars of Marriages across the country.
I'm happy to close off the OIA based on his call and the response.
Link to this