Registration Service Act 1953

13 Local schemes of organisation

(1) There shall be in force for each county and county borough a scheme or schemes (in this Act referred to as " the local scheme ") prepared and made in accordance with the next following section.

(2) Provision shall be made by the local scheme for—

(a) determining the number and boundaries of the registration districts and sub-districts in the county or county borough;

(b) determining the location of offices and stations for those districts and sub-districts;

(c) determining the number of superintendent registrars, registrars of births and deaths and other officers required for the purposes of the Registration Acts within the county or county borough;

(d) subject to such exceptions, if any, as may be specified in the scheme, conferring and imposing on registrars of births and deaths the functions of registrars of marriages;

(e) fixing, subject to such power of revision as may be provided by the scheme, the salary and other remuneration, if any, to be attached to each office, and the allowances, if any, to be paid for travelling, for the provision of office accommodation and for other expenses;

(f) fixing, subject to such power of revision as may be provided by the scheme, the conditions on which an office is to be held, so, however, that nothing in the scheme shall affect the power of the Registrar General to remove from office an officer in any case in which the Registrar General is satisfied that the officer has been guilty of serious default in the performance of the duties imposed on him by the Registration Acts or any regulations made thereunder;

(g) applying with any necessary modifications, adaptations and exceptions the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1929, relating to the transfer, superannuation and compensation of officers;

(h) conferring on the clerk of the county council or the town clerk of the county borough powers with respect to—

(i) the fixing of the hours of attendance of officers;

(ii) the distribution of business between officers;

(iii) the transfer of superintendent registrars and registrars of births and deaths within or between districts.

(3) The local scheme may in addition—

(a) make provision, where two or more officers are appointed to act for a single district or sub-district, for the distribution between them of the registration functions to be discharged within that district or sub-district, so, however, that any such distribution shall not render any such officer disqualified from acting at any time or at any place in that district or, as the case may be, sub-district; and

(b) confer on the clerk of the county council or the town clerk of the county borough such general powers of supervising the administration within the county or county borough of the provisions of the Registration Acts as may be specified in the scheme.