UPDATED 5.32pm: Government agencies have been given less than three months to close the loopholes that let Phillip Smith flee New Zealand.

A multi-agency review has just released its initial report to the Government, which will help inform the inquiry currently underway.

It notes that Smith abandoned his birth name of Traynor when he was just three .. but as the change wasn't official, he could order a passport in his original name, with no convictions attached.

Police, the Department of Internal Affairs, and Immigration New Zealand are now on notice that information sharing needs to improve, even if it requires a law change.