• “(1) There must be set up and maintained within the Department a register of citizenship by descent.

• “(2) The purpose of the register is to provide a record of persons who have registered their citizenship by descent status.

• “(3) A person who wishes to have his or her birth, or the birth of any other person, registered for the purposes of section 7(2) of the Act may apply to the Secretary on the form provided by the Secretary.

• “(3A) The application may be lodged with any office of the Department, or with any New Zealand representative, and must be accompanied by the prescribed fee (if any).

• “(3B) On being satisfied of the relevant person's entitlement to be registered for the purposes of section 7(2) of the Act, the Secretary must cause an appropriate entry of the matter to be inserted in the register of citizenship by descent.”

• “(1A) The purpose of the register is to provide a record of persons who have acquired citizenship by grant.”

• “(1A) The purpose of the registers is, respectively,—

  • “(a) to provide a record of persons who have renounced citizenship:

  • “(b) to provide a record of persons who have been deprived of citizenship.”

“15 Public access to registers

• “(1) Except as provided in subclause (2), information from a register referred to in regulations 11 to 13 (a citizenship register) may be disclosed—

  • “(a) only in respect of a named individual; and

  • “(b) only on request, in a manner specified by the Secretary, by—

    • “(i) the individual concerned; or

    • “(ii) a person who has the authorisation of the named individual; or

    • “(iii) a person who needs confirmation of the citizenship status of a parent or grandparent to establish a claim to citizenship; or

    • “(iv) a person who satisfies the Secretary that he or she requires the information for a genuine and proper purpose that is related to the purpose of the relevant register.

  “(2) Despite subclause (1), information from a citizenship register may be disclosed for any of the following purposes:

  • “(a) to avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law by a public sector agency:

  • “(b) for the exercise of security-related functions of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service:

  • “(c) for the conduct of any proceedings before any court or tribunal:

  • “(d) for statistical or research purposes where the information will not be published in a form that could reasonably be expected to identify any individual concerned.”

“18A Refund for withdrawal of application for grant of citizenship in certain cases

• “(1) Where a person who has applied for a grant of citizenship withdraws that application before completion of its initial processing, the person is entitled to a refund of—

  • “(a) $150, in the case of a person who has paid the fee set out in item 1 or item 3 of the Schedule:

  • “(b) $75, in the case of a person who has paid the fee set out in item 2 or item 4 of the Schedule.

  “(2) No refund is payable if the person withdraws the application after completion of its initial processing.

  “(3) For the purposes of this regulation, initial processing of an application is treated as completed once—

  • “(a) an employee of the Department has given written notification to the applicant of the option to withdraw the application; and

  • “(b) the applicant has responded to that written notification.”