People applying for government services will, from April 16, no longer be required to provide birth, marriage or death certificates since the departments concerns will get the certificates directly from the registry, with no costs for the applicants, Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said has announced.

He said the purpose of this measure was to reduce bureaucracy, improve collaboration between government departments and make fuller use of the government’s IT system.

Dr Said said that those employees who have access to civil status certificates are bound by strict confidentiality regulations in line with the Data Protection Act.