Reorganisation of local registration services
Section 37 Registration districts and authorities
73.Prior to the Act there were 230 Registration Districts (RDs) in Scotland. The RDs sometimes matched the area covered by one of the 32 local councils (a large example was the City of Glasgow; a smaller one Clackmannanshire). More often, the local council was responsible for more than one RD. In some cases, for historical reasons, a single RD overlapped a council boundary and included the territory of 2 or more councils. It was not always obvious to the citizen where the birth of a baby should be registered or in which RD the death of a relative had occurred. Subsection (2) therefore amends the 1965 Act by providing that each local authority area is a registration district and that the relevant local authority is the local registration authority. Subsection (3) repeals the current provision for a local authority or local authorities to alter the boundaries of their registration districts – these will simply be the local authority area. Subsections (4) to (6) make changes to the administrative provisions on senior and district registrars and other staff, registration offices and area repositories in the 1965 Act which are consequential on the changes in subsections (2) and (3). Section 37 came into force on 1st January 2007.
Section 38 Registration offices: opening times
74.Under section 8(3) of the 1965 Act, all the registration offices in an RD had to have the same hours of business. This made it more difficult for councils to run local offices, because they had to be open throughout normal working hours even if there was little demand. The problem was more acute when the entire council area was a single RD. Section 38 therefore amends the 1965 Act to allow the local registration authority to set different opening hours for different registration offices, subject to the approval of the Registrar General. Section 38 came into force on 1st January 2007.
