Civil Registration changes

The government has just published a new consultation paper on changing
civil registration in England & Wales.

You might recall it attempted to blunder through a very complex set of
changes through the back door that got thrown out of Parliament a year ago.
They have gone back and worked out what they could do legally under the old
legislation and have started on that already.

From a family history point of view that includes digitising the old BMD
registers (Not-FreeBMD) and updating their systems so registrars' screens
can directly print out certificates in the local offices.

CWatters...

Given that ID cards could store Birth and Marriage data (or for that matter
your whole family tree) I wonder if the days of paper certificates are
numbered.

squealing...

1) You'd think they'd look into downloading the certificate information
directly over the web for the vast majority of simple cases, like we can
already do with old census pages, wills, or medal rolls. However, that
would take away a revenue stream from the registrars. (The only mention is
that some offices can't cope with the number of requests, nothing about
revenues from certificates)

2) not sure that the ID card bill puts all of that information directly
onto the all-encompassing database. However registration data would be
accessible through links.

They propose creating new legislation for other aspects:
- getting the local authority to employ the registrars directly (they imply
the authority can reduce the numbers of skilled officers)
- accepting registration by phone or internet
- expanding the venues where a marriage can happen
- having a big database of everyone, with a through-life record (!!)
- etc...

The consultation is 10 pages plus Appencies & a simple response form. SoG
should be getting a copy.
See: