The Ministry of Health and the New Zealand Police have signed a Memorandum of Understanding relating to the disclosure of newborn blood spot samples.  The Memorandum came into effect on 28 February 2006.

The Memorandum regulates requests from the Police to the Ministry for access to samples and clarifies the circumstances in which such requests may be granted.  To date, "Guthrie" cards have been used by police once or twice a year to identify dead or missing persons mostly with parental request - for instance when a child dies in a house fire.

The "Guthrie" cards are only used as a last resort where all other avenues for identifying the person are not practicable or have failed.

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