Privacy policy

No need to disclose personal information

You can use www.ewrb.govt.nz without disclosing any personal information.

EWRB public register

We publish the names, status and licence histories of electrical workers in a public register on this website, so that anyone can find a suitable electrical worker or check that a person is registered as an electrical worker. Electrical workers may choose to display their photos on the register.

Voluntary disclosure of personal information to employer
Board Rules allow electrical workers to share licence information with their employer for the purposes of maintaining their competence programme, renewing their practising licence or paying practising licence fees. Where an electrical worker chooses to share licence information with their employer, in addition to information on the public register and licence card, the employer can view an electrical worker’s middle name, date of birth, postal address and contact email and phone numbers. Employers are required to store information submitted to the Registrar on behalf of an electrical worker for 7 years.

Voluntary disclosure of personal information

You may choose to voluntarily provide personal information through this website (e.g. in comments, questions or feedback). This information will be viewable by site administrators, the Board, MBIE staff (as appropriate) and sometimes third-party contractors who administrate or work on the site.

Collection of personal information

MBIE may ask or require you (including where required by legislation administered by MBIE) to provide some personal information when you complete an online form (e.g. by submitting information to the Registrar through an online service, or through the site Contact form or a form to subscribe to site updates or news). If you choose not to provide information where it is required by law, you may not be entitled to the service or benefit offered or could be in breach of statutory obligations.

Holding of information

When you provide personal information, it will be held by MBIE. It may be stored or accessed on behalf of MBIE by authorised third parties (such as third-party contractors) to the extent that is necessary, for example for them to administrate or work on the site. We will store and keep it secure in accordance with the Privacy Act 2020 and authorised third parties will be subject to MBIE’s information security and privacy requirements.

Disclosure of information

MBIE will generally not share personal information that is provided or collected through this website, unless it is necessary to do so for the purpose for which you gave us the information (e.g. to investigate a complaint) or where you consent. MBIE will not otherwise disclose personal information provided or collected through this website unless required or otherwise permitted by law.

Use of personal information

We will generally only use personal information provided to us through this website for the purpose you provided it (e.g. to administer, evaluate and improve the site, to improve our services and to action or respond to the information provided). We may also use personal information provided to us through this website for other reasons permitted under the Privacy Act (e.g. with your consent, for a directly related purpose, or where the law permits or requires it).

MBIE will only retain personal information as long as it is required for the purposes for which the information may lawfully be used.

Public records

Where any information provided (which may include personal information) to or through this site constitute public records, it will be retained to the extent required by the Public Records Act 2005. MBIE may also be required to disclose information under the Official Information Act 1982 or to a Parliamentary Select Committee or Parliament in response to a Parliamentary Question

When you become a registered user of this website, personal information will be collected from you. This information is collected for two purposes:

• for the management of your account with us; and
• for determining the usage of this website.

If you do not provide the information requested when you attempt to register, you cannot become a registered user of this website.

As part of our commitment to providing the best possible service to our customers we record all telephone calls answered in our contact centre. This helps us to identify ways that we can provide you with a better service.

We record calls:

• for staff training purposes, helping us to improve the quality of our customer service and to ensure the information we provide is consistent and accurate;
• so we can find ways to simplify our service to you; and
• to ensure we have an accurate record of your call, which may be needed to support any transactions that take place over the phone and/or if there is a dispute.

We understand your personal information is important to you, and we are committed to protecting your privacy. We store the recordings securely for two years and destroy them after this period.

Unless we have lawful reason for withholding this information, it will be made available if you request access to a transcript of your call by phoning 0800 661 000 and asking for the Privacy Officer.

Your rights

You have the right to:

• find out from us whether we hold personal information about you
• access that information; and, if applicable
• request corrections to that information.

If MBIE has a good reason for refusing a request for correction, you are entitled to request that a statement be attached to the information of the correction that was sought but not made.

If you want to check your personal information that we hold, please write to:

Privacy Officer
Electrical Workers Registration Board
15 Stout Street
P O Box 10-156
Wellington 6143.

For more information on the privacy laws in New Zealand and contact details for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, please visit the Privacy Commissioner's website.

Statistical information

We may collect statistical information about your visit to help us improve this site. This information is aggregated and non-personally identifying. It includes:

• your IP address;
• the search terms you used;
• the pages you accessed on our Site and the links you clicked on;
• the date and time you visited the site;
• the referring site (if any) through which you clicked through to this Site;
• the device you used to access the site;
• your operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Mac OSX);
• the type of web browser you use (e.g. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox); and
• incidental matters such as screen resolution, the release of your installed Flash version and the language setting of your browser.

The statistical information referred to above will be viewable by site administrators and certain other MBIE staff. It may also be shared with other government agencies.

Cookies

Browser or ‘web’ cookies are small text files that are sent by a website and stored on your computer's hard drive. Cookies are generally used to improve your experience of a website (e.g. by remembering preferences you have set) and to track site usage.

MBIE does not use cookies on this website to gather any personally identifiable information. We use cookies to gather data about trends in site usage using a tool called Google Analytics.

You can read Google’s privacy statement, and access a Google Analytics opt-out tool, at the Google Privacy Center.

You can manually disable cookies at any time - check your browser's 'Help' to find out how (disabling cookies will not affect your ability to use this website).

MBIE websites have security measures in place to prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of information under our control. In order to maintain the cyber security of MBIE systems and information, MBIE systems are subject to ongoing monitoring (including activity logging), analysis and auditing. We may use information about your use of our websites and other IT systems to prevent unauthorised access or attacks on these systems or to resolve such events. We may use this information even if you are not involved in such activity. MBIE may utilise services from one or more third party suppliers to monitor or maintain the cyber security of its systems and information. These third party suppliers will have access to monitoring and logging information as well as information processed on MBIE websites and other IT systems.

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) transparency statement describes the kind of information MBIE gathers to ensure it can effectively:

• protect people, information, and places
• ensure regulatory compliance, and
• detect and prevent criminal offending.

MBIE’s transparency statement | Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.