Births, Deaths and Marriages - Regulatory Impact Statement


The Rationale for Collecting Information and Charging Fees

5. THE RATIONALE FOR CHARGING FEES, AND PRESCRIBING THE INFORMATION WHICH IS TO BE PROVIDED TO THE REGISTRY

The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 provides for the compulsory civil registration of births, deaths and marriages in NSW.

The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages maintains records of all births, deaths, marriages, changes of name, adoptions and changes of sex occurring in New South Wales. It holds approximately 16 million records dating from 1789 to the present day. On average, 180,000 new births, deaths, marriages, adoptions and changes of name are registered each year. The Registry receives approximately 360,000 applications for certificates each year.

NSW residents benefit from compulsory registration as they can obtain documentary evidence of identity or an event from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages which enables them to access a range of legal, social and financial entitlements. For example, a birth certificate must be produced in order to obtain an Australian passport, driver’s licence or aged pension or to enter school. A death certificate must be produced in order to deal with a deceased person’s estate.

Compulsory registration also benefits the community generally as it enables general statistical information to be collected on an ongoing basis rather than once every five years when the Census is conducted. Accurate and standardised State population information assists in determining the allocation of Government services and Commonwealth funding through the Grants Commission. Accurate mortality data can assist with medical research.

The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages is an off-budget Government Trading Enterprise which must cover all operating and capital costs from revenue generated from statutory and non-statutory services. The Registry is also required to pay a dividend to the Consolidated Fund, which currently is 70% of its pre-tax profit.

In setting its fee structure, the Registry needs to ensure that it will be able to fund operational expenditure, maintain current capital investment programs, in particular the data conversion project *, and meet its obligations to provide a dividend to government.

(*Under the data conversion project, paper records dating from 1856 to 1951 are being converted to a high quality, machine accessible format. These documents are mostly hand-written and repeated production use of these original records causes unnecessary wear and tear. The project will lead to improvements in the quality of the document which is issued to clients and the speed with which the service is provided.)