§ Mr. Newensasked the Secretary of State for the Social Services if he will provide facilities through the General Register Office for the information exclusively contained in registers of births, marriages and deaths, not open to public inspection, to be made available to genuine students and research workers at a nominal fee.
§ Mr. MoyleNo. The registers contain personal details which individuals are required under penalty to give to the registrar. The law confers no right of public access to the registers in the custody of superintendent registrars, thus protecting the information from casual scrutiny, but enables members of the public to have a certificate from any entry in which they have a legitimate interest by providing that any person may search the indexes and obtain a certified copy of any entry in the registers on payment of the prescribed fee. There is no provision in law for information from the registers to be disclosed otherwise than by the issue of a certified copy or short birth certificate.
Staffing and accommodation in register offices are provided by local authorities on the basis of the statutory duties of superintendent registrars and the rights which the law confers on the public. The 485W extra staff and accommodation that would be needed to enable people to study the registers in suitable conditions and under proper supervision could not be provided without increased expenditure by local authorities.