382.003  Powers and duties of the department.--The department may:

(1)  Establish an Office of Vital Statistics under the direction of a State Registrar for the uniform and efficient registration, compilation, storage, and preservation of all vital records in the state.

(2)  Procure the complete registration of all vital records in each registration district and in the Office of Vital Statistics.

(3)  Uniformly enforce the law throughout the state.

(4)  Establish registration districts throughout the state, which districts may be consolidated or subdivided to facilitate registration.

(5)  Appoint a local registrar of vital statistics for each registration district in the state.

(6)  Investigate cases of irregularity or violation of law, and all local registrars of vital statistics shall aid the department in such investigations. When necessary, the department shall report cases of violations of any of the provisions of this chapter to the state attorney having charge of the prosecution of misdemeanors in the registration district in which the violation occurs.

(7)  Approve all forms used in registering, recording, certifying, and preserving vital records, or in otherwise carrying out the purposes of this chapter, and no other forms shall be used other than those approved by the department. The department is responsible for the careful examination of the certificates received monthly from the local registrars and marriage certificates and dissolution of marriage reports received from the circuit and county courts. A certificate that is complete and satisfactory shall be accepted and given a state file number and considered a state-filed record. If any such certificates are incomplete or unsatisfactory, the department shall require further information to be supplied as may be necessary to make the record complete and satisfactory. All physicians, midwives, informants, or funeral directors, and all other persons having knowledge of the facts, are required to supply, upon a form approved by the department or upon the original certificate, such information as they may possess regarding any vital record.

(8)  Prepare and publish an annual report of vital statistics and such other reports as may be required.

(9)  Appoint one or more suitable persons to act as subregistrars, who shall be authorized to receive death certificates and fetal death certificates and to issue burial permits in and for such portions of one or more districts as may be designated. A subregistrar may be removed from office by the department for neglect of or failure to perform his or her duty in accordance with this chapter.

(10)  Adopt, promulgate, and enforce rules necessary for the creation, issuance, recording, rescinding, maintenance, and processing of vital records and for carrying out the provisions of ss. 382.004-¹382.014 and ss. 382.016-382.019.

History.--ss. 1, 4, 18, 23, 24, ch. 6892, 1915; RGS 2068, 2071, 2088, 2093, 2094; CGL 3268, 3271, 3288, 3293, 3294; ss. 1, 15, ch. 25372, 1949; s. 1, ch. 67-312; ss. 11, 19, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 1, ch. 73-300; s. 24, ch. 73-334; ss. 99, 112, 116, ch. 77-147; s. 2, ch. 87-387; s. 662, ch. 95-148; s. 88, ch. 97-237.

¹Note.--Repealed by s. 125, ch. 97-237.