If the Civil Registration and Identification Bill is anything to go by, the age of obtaining an identity document will be lowered from 16 to 14 years.

This is one of the provisions contained in the bill, which was introduced for the second time by the Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety, and Security.

Reintroducing the Civil Registration and Identification Bill, Minister Albert Kawana emphasised the importance of civil registration, saying without proper registration, individuals face challenges in accessing social services.

"The comprehensive objectives of the bill are to provide a national civil registration system for the notification registration and certification of births, stillbirths, adoptions, deaths, name changes, marriages, and divorces, and for the assuring of identity documents; to provide for the keeping of registers for recording and preserving information relating to civil events; to regulate the issuing of civil event certificates; to provide a system to assist persons who lack national documentation; to provide access to authentication verification and sharing of information kept in the register; and to provide access to authentication verification and sharing of information kept in the register."

Lowering the minimum age for obtaining an ID from 16 to 14 years is to provide learners with identification cards before the national promotion examinations.

The bill also addresses issues related to the intentional adjustments of birth dates by authorising the Age Determination Committee to resolve such cases.

"In regards to people changing their dates of birth as they please, at times intentionally changing to the wrong age, some people seek to change their dates of birth when they want to retire, when they do not want to retire, or when they want to access senior citizen pension. So the bill makes provision for the age determination committee as a statutory body to deal with matters like this, and the committee will be empowered to determine one's age from available documentation and evidence."

Another provision mandates that medical personnel record causes of death, with non-compliance being a criminal offence.