9 July 2026

Re: Official Information Act Request — OIA-DEMOGRAPHIC-AUDIT-2026-06-06 — Demographic, Mortality, Funeral/Cemetery and Migration Reconciliation (ref: 133244)

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Re: OIA 133244 – request for assistance and narrowed coronial request

Thank you for your response dated 3 July 2026.

I note the Ministry refused my request in full under section 18(f) of the Official Information Act 1982 on the basis that substantial collation and research would be required.

I am concerned that the request appears to have been refused in full without separating the parts that are more closely connected with the Ministry’s coronial functions and without providing practical assistance to refine the request.

To narrow the request, please now treat this as a request limited to information held by the Ministry of Justice / Coronial Services / Coroners Court only.

Please provide, for the period 1 January 2015 to the present:

1. Annual numbers of deaths reported to the Coroner.

2. Annual numbers of coronial cases opened.

3. Annual numbers of coronial cases closed.

4. Annual numbers of deaths awaiting coronial determination at year end.

5. Any annual reports, dashboards, summary tables, internal briefings, or management reports showing coronial caseload, backlog, delays, timeliness, or cause-of-death/case-status categories.

6. Any methodology, glossary, or guidance document explaining how coronial deaths are classified, counted, opened, closed, coded, or reported.

7. Any records or guidance explaining whether and how coronial death records are reconciled with death registrations, medical certificates of cause of death, or mortality statistics.

8. Any records identifying known limitations, delays, provisional status, coding issues, or reporting caveats affecting coronial death data.

9. If the Ministry does not hold a reconciliation between coronial deaths and registered deaths, please state that clearly.

10. If any of the above information is publicly available, please identify the exact publication, table, dataset, URL, date, title, version, and relevant table number, rather than providing a general website link.

This narrowed request is intended to remove the broader health, hospital, cemetery, cremation, funeral, migration, fertility, and local government components of the original request.

If the Ministry still considers any part of this narrowed request may require substantial collation, please provide assistance under the Official Information Act by identifying:

• which parts can be answered without substantial collation;

• which datasets or documents exist;

• the relevant business unit or team that holds them;

• the narrowest formulation that would allow release; and

• whether the Ministry can provide a summary, schedule, sample year, or existing report instead of refusing the request.

Please also reconsider whether any part of the original request should have been transferred under section 14, or whether the Ministry can identify the relevant agency responsible for the non-coronial parts.

Nāku noa,

Tracy Lynch

On Jul 3, 2026 at 5:04 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

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UNCLASSIFIED

Tēnā koe Ms Lynch

Please find attached a response to your request.

Ngā mihi

Communications and Ministerial Services | Corporate Services

Ministry of Justice | Tāhū o te Ture justice.govt.nz

UNCLASSIFIED

From: F Q <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, June 6, 2026 9:53 AM
To: Info <[email protected]>; Officeofthegsce <[email protected]>; Hnzoia <[email protected]>; Oia <[email protected]>; Bdmonline <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Ministerial Services Inbox [TSY] <[email protected]>
Cc: Records <[email protected]>
Subject: Official Information Act Request — OIA-DEMOGRAPHIC-AUDIT-2026-06-06 — Demographic, Mortality, Funeral/Cemetery and Migration Reconciliation (ref: 133244)

To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

6 June 2026

Greetings,

Please find attached an Official Information Act request dated 6 June 2026.

Reference: OIA-DEMOGRAPHIC-AUDIT-2026-06-06

Subject: Official Information Act Request — Reconciliation of Births, Deaths, Pregnancy Outcomes, Hospital Mortality, Funeral/Cremation/Cemetery Records, Death Notices, and Migration Data

This request is sent to Stats NZ, Health New Zealand, the Department of Internal Affairs / Births, Deaths and Marriages, and the Ministry of Justice / Coronial Services because the information requested appears to sit across multiple public systems.

The request seeks the audit trail behind published demographic and mortality information, not merely links to headline published figures. In particular, it seeks records showing whether birth, death, hospital, mortuary, funeral, cremation, cemetery, pregnancy-outcome, coronial, death-notice, and migration datasets are reconciled, audited, caveated, or known to be incomplete.

If any part of the request is more closely connected with another agency’s functions, please transfer that part under section 14 of the Official Information Act 1982 and advise me of the transfer.

If any part of the request is considered too broad, please provide assistance to refine it, including identifying the datasets, publications, records, teams, or agencies that hold the relevant information.

Please confirm receipt and provide the reference number allocated by each agency.

Yours faithfully,

Tracy Lynch

isayso.net

Show us the audit trail.

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