DEREGULATION BILL
Memorandum by the Home Office to the Delegated Powers and
Regulatory Reform Committee
INTRODUCTION
1.
This supplementary Memorandum deals with amendments to the Deregulation
Bill inserting two new clauses which provide for additional access to birth, marriage,
civil partnership and death records (referred to as the “records”) and which confer
delegated powers. The amendments were tabled on 3 February 2015 by Baron
Stoneham of Droxford and Baroness Scott of Needham Market. The Government
supports the amendments. This supplementary Memorandum has been prepared by
the Home Office (“the Department”).
BACKGROUND
2. The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 and the Marriage Act 1949 provide
for the Registrar General (the “RG”), to supply certified copies of entries in the
registers held by him to members of the public on request. These are facsimile copies
of entries in the register certified as being accurate.
3. These two clauses confer powers that will provide for additional entitlement to
access to records held by the RG. Currently the only form of a record available to the
public is a certified copy of an entry (a certificate). This is an outmoded and
expensive method of providing information. Members of the public, in particular
those interested in genealogy or carrying out other forms of research, often only need
some of the information held by the RG and would be happy for that information to
be provided in formats other than a certified copy. Members of the public would also
like the RG to carry out searches of the records on their behalf. This would make
researching one’s ancestry cheaper and easier. It is hoped that in the future, the RG
may be able to provide print outs from the electronic record more efficiently and more
cheaply than he is able to under the current legal provisions. The current registration
law dates back to the middle of the last century and is highly prescriptive and
restrictive. It takes no account of developments such as computerisation and the
internet.
4. The clauses also confer powers that will enable the Secretary of State to allow the
RG to carry out searches on behalf of members of the public and to charge a fee for
this. This is a service often requested by members of the public but, as a statutory
office holder, the RG can only act within his statutory powers so this new flexibility
will allow him to provide a new service to the public.
5. The clauses will allow regulations to be made that will enable records to be treated
differently, in terms of how information is provided, based on factors such as the age
of the record. The provision that allows for different provision to be made for
different cases is in section 39A of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 and
section 74(3) of the Marriage Act 1949. Treating records differently depending on
their age would be in line with Scotland and Northern Ireland where there is a
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distinction between modern civil registration records, which means for birth records
less than 100 years old, for marriage records less than 75 years old and for death
records less than 50 years old, and all historical records. In Scotland and Northern
Ireland the ability to treat different record sets in different ways has allowed for older
records to be viewed more cheaply and easily online. In terms of the modern records,
whilst these would not be made generally available in order to protect information
relating to living individuals, it would be possible to offer new products such as plain
paper extracts to customers who do not require a watermarked certificate, thus
reducing the number of certificates in circulation and supporting Government
objectives around security and public protection.
6.
The new clauses after clause 79 confer the following delegated powers on the
Secretary of State:
● Power to make regulations allowing the RG to carry out searches of
and provide records of entries in the births and deaths registers (First
new clause after clause 79);
● Power to make regulations allowing the RG to carry out searches of
and provide records of entries in the marriage register (Second new
clause after clause 79);
● Extending existing regulation-making powers to allow for similar
provision to be made in relation to information in the conversion
register which is the register of civil partnerships that have been
converted to marriages pursuant to section 9 of the Marriage (Same
Sex Couples) Act 2013 (Second new clause after clause 79).
Additionally the second new clause after clause 79 confers the following delegated
power on the RG:
● Extending existing regulation-making powers to allow for similar
provision to be made in relation to entries in the civil partnership
register (Second new clause after clause 79);
DEVOLUTION
7.
The clauses extend to England and Wales only as civil registration is devolved
to Scotland and Northern Ireland and the legislation amended by these clauses only
extends to England and Wales.
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PROVISIONS CONFERRING DELEGATED POWERS
First new clause after clause 79 – information contained in entries of births and
deaths
New section 34A of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953
Power conferred on: Secretary of State
Power exercised by: Regulations made by statutory instrument
Procedure: Negative Resolution
8. The first new clause after clause 79 inserts a new section 34A into the Births and
Deaths Registration Act 1953, which confers power on the Secretary of State to
provide for additional services and records to be provided by the RG.
9. Such additional services are in addition to all existing entitlements which remain
unaffected by these new clauses.
10. The Department considers that it is appropriate to provide for these additional
entitlements to be set out in secondary legislation because such entitlements may be
added to or altered over time to cater for public demand and the availability of new
products as technology develops. The clauses remove some of the restrictions that
currently surround the provision of information from the records and allow the RG for
flexibility in the delivery of this service. The fees charged for this new service will be
set in accordance with Treasury rules.
11. Subsection (4) adds regulations made under the new section 34A to the list of
statutory instruments set out in section 39A of the Act that must be made after
consultation with the RG and are subject to the negative resolution procedure.
12. The Department considers that the negative resolution procedure is appropriate
here because these new clauses merely confer power to add new entitlements to the
existing range of entitlements and are designed to reduce the burden on the RG to
enable him to provide a better and more flexible service to the public. The power to
make such provision is discretionary and will not be made if there is no demand or if
there are any logistical problems that cannot be overcome. No new burdens are
imposed and the public and the genealogy industry can only benefit from these
provisions becoming law. The regulations made using this power will make only
small additions to existing entitlements by allowing for information already available
to the public to be made available in different formats. The change will allow
important flexibility to the RG but the overall change in provision so far as the public
is concerned is minor and full parliamentary debate in both Houses of Parliament is
considered unnecessary.
Second new clause after clause 79 – Information contained in entries of
marriages and civil partnerships etc
New section 65A of the Marriage Act 1949 and amendments to the Civil
Partnership Act 2004 and the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) 2013
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Power conferred on: Secretary of State and the RG
Power exercised by: Regulations
Procedure: Negative and no procedure for the RG regulations
13.
New section 65A confers power on the Secretary of State to make similar
provision to that made in relation to birth and death records in the previous clause, but
in relation to the marriage register (in subsection (1)). The clause also amends the
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 to make similar provision in relation to the
conversion register (in subsection (3)) and amends the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to
confer similar powers on the RG in relation to the civil partnership register (in
subsection (2)). Regulations may be made providing for searches of the registers, and
products, such as electronic print-outs of records or commemorative certificates
should there be a public demand for such services or products. It is known that there
is a demand for cheaper and simpler records of register entries than the certified
copies that are the only available option under the existing law.
14. The Department considers that it is appropriate to make provision about the
additional entitlements in relation to the marriage register in subordinate legislation
for the same reasons as given above and to ensure consistency across the various
records held by the RG. As technology advances and the public seek the provision of
public services in different ways the Secretary of State will need the flexibility of
making provision by secondary legislation. Such secondary legislation must always
be made after consultation with the RG.
15. The Department considers that the negative resolution procedure is appropriate
here because these new clauses merely confer power to add new entitlements to
existing entitlement and are designed to reduce the burden on the RG and to enable
him to provide a better and more flexible service to the public. The power to make
such provision is discretionary and will not be made if there is no demand or if there
are any logistical problems that cannot be overcome. No new burdens are imposed
and the public and the genealogy industry can only benefit from these provisions
becoming law. The regulations made using this power will make only small additions
to existing entitlements by allowing for information already available to the public to
be made available in different formats. The change will allow important flexibility to
the RG but the overall change in provision so far as the public is concerned is minor
and full parliamentary debate in both Houses of Parliament is considered unnecessary.
16. Subsection (2) of the new clause amends the regulation-making powers in section
36 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004 to confer similar powers on the RG to make
regulations in relation to the records held by the RG concerning civil partnerships.
Regulations made by the RG are by convention not subject to Parliamentary
procedure because the RG is not able to speak to them in Parliament. However,
regulations can only be made by the RG with the approval of the Secretary of State.
17. Subsection (3) of the new clause amends section 9 of the Marriage (Same Sex
Couples) Act 2013 to make similar provision in relation to the conversion register
which is the register of civil partnerships that have been converted into marriages.
This provision will allow the Secretary of State to make provision in regulations for
the carrying out of searches of and the provision of records of information held by the
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RG in relation to such conversions. All regulations made pursuant to subsections (4)
and (5) of section 9 of this Act are, in accordance with section 18, subject to the
negative procedure and for the reasons given above the Department believes that the
negative procedure would be most appropriate here.
HOME OFFICE AND CABINET OFFICE
3 February 2015
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