Citation, commencement and interpretation
1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships Records Regulations 2016 and come into force on 7th November 2016.
(2) In these Regulations—
“expedited service” means a service provided to a person who makes an application to the Registrar General before 13:00 on a working day and which is normally provided within 3 relevant hours of the request for a record being received;
“portable document format” means a document which meets the specifications set out in the International Standards Organisation document ISO 32000-1:2008(1);
“relevant hours” means the hours between 08:00 and 16:00 on a working day;
“standard service” means a service provided to a person who makes an application to the Registrar General and which is normally provided within 5 working days of the request for a record being received;
“working day” means a day which is not a Saturday or Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(2) in England and Wales.
Provision of the information contained in a birth record in portable document format
2.—(1) The Registrar General may, on request, search the Registrar General’s certified copies of entries in the birth register and provide a record of the information contained in a birth entry in those copies, in portable document format.
(2) A request for the Registrar General to undertake a search and provide information under paragraph (1) must—
(a)be made via the public website known as www.gov.uk, and
(b)indicate whether the record is required by way of standard service or expedited service.
(3) The Registrar General may charge a fee for each record provided under paragraph (1) in accordance with regulation 6 and the fee charged is payable to the Registrar General.
Provision of the information contained in a death record in portable document format
3.—(1) The Registrar General may, on request, search the Registrar General’s certified copies of entries in the death register and provide a record of the information contained in a death entry in those copies, in portable document format.
(2) A request for the Registrar General to undertake a search and provide information under paragraph (1) must—
(a)be made via the public website known as www.gov.uk, and
(b)indicate whether the record is required by way of standard service or expedited service.
(3) The Registrar General may charge a fee for each record provided under paragraph (1) in accordance with regulation 6 and the fee charged is payable to the Registrar General.
Provision of the information contained in a marriage record in portable document format
4.—(1) The Registrar General may, on request, search the Registrar General’s certified copies of entries in the marriage register and copies of entries in the conversion register(3) and provide a record of the information contained in a marriage entry in those copies, in portable document format.
(2) A request for the Registrar General to undertake a search and provide information under paragraph (1) must—
(a)be made via the public website known as www.gov.uk, and
(b)indicate whether the record is required by way of standard service or expedited service.
(3) The Registrar General may charge a fee for each record provided under paragraph (1) in accordance with regulation 6 and the fee charged is payable to the Registrar General.
Provision of information contained in a birth record in electronic format
5.—(1) The Registrar General may, on request, search the Registrar General’s certified copies of entries in the birth register and provide a record of the information contained in an entry in those copies, to a Government department (including the Welsh Government but not including a Northern Ireland department or any part of the Scottish Administration), in electronic format.
(2) The record of information that may be provided under paragraph (1) may be in a format that does not include all of the information contained in the birth record entry.
Fees
6.—(1) The fee for a request made for a copy of a record (in portable document format) which is held in a digital format is—
(a)£6.00 for a record provided by standard service, or
(b)£45.00 for a record provided by expedited service.
(2) The fee for a request made for a copy of a record (in portable document format) which is held in any other format is—
(a)£8.00 for a record provided by standard service, or
(b)£45.00 for a record provided by expedited service.
(3) In this regulation “a record” means a record of the information contained in the Registrar General’s certified copies of entries in the birth register, the death register and the marriage register and copies of entries in the conversion register and the civil partnership register(4).
Robert Goodwill
Minister of State
Home Office
13th October 2016