About us Mō mātou

About the Ministry of Health and the New Zealand health system. 

Regulation & legislation Ngā here me ngā ture

Health providers and products we regulate, and laws we administer.

Strategies & initiatives He rautaki, he tūmahi hou

How we’re working to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders.

Māori health Hauora Māori

Increasing access to health services, achieving equity and improving outcomes for Māori.

Statistics & research He tatauranga, he rangahau

Data and insights from our health surveys, research and monitoring.

The Burial and Cremation Act 1964 provides a framework for the management of cemeteries and the operation of crematoria. It also provides a process for the certification of cause of death. 

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Cremation Regulations: Authorising Medical Referees to permit cremation to be carried out with complying with Regulation 7

This notice authorises Medical Referees to permit cremations to be carried out without complying with the requirement in regulation 7(1) of the cremation regulations for a medical or nurse practitioner to complete form AB or to see and identify the body after death for the purpose of completing form B in specific situations. This authorisation comes into force on 20 December 2024 and will expire on 31 December 2025.

Further guidance can be found on the Ministry’s Publication webpage and the Health New Zealand website.

Review of the Burial and Cremation Act

During 2019-2020, we undertook a public consultation on options to modernise the Burial and Cremation Act 1964 and related legislation. This followed a Law Commission report which made recommendations to modernise the law (read the report Death, Burial and Cremation: A new law for contemporary New Zealand (R134)

View the:

Following the consultation, we continued to engage further with stakeholders in developing policy options. However the prioritisation of resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in some delays in the policy response to the consultation.

Non-legislative changes made

Non-legislative changes have been made to address some of the Law Commission recommendations.

The most significant change has been to provide for an online death certification process. We launched Death Documents in 2017-2018 together with the Department of Internal Affairs. 

Death documents

Another change has been updating the guidance to support practitioners completing a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death.

Completing death documents

Next steps

We’re now reassessing our policy work in this area.

We’re looking at whether a broader range of factors need to be considered than were initially covered in the consultation, particularly given the time that has passed since the Law Commission completed its report. We’re also considering the impact of the non-regulatory changes, such as implementing online death certification and updating guidance for practitioners.

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