Registrar Records (Hansard, 8 June 2004)

§ Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Registrar General for England and Wales, who has been asked to reply.

377W

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Laurence Robertson, dated 8 June 2004:

As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales, I have been asked to reply to your recent questions concerning what back-up exists for the records held on computers by registrars of births, marriages and deaths and what measures are taken against possible abuse of records held by registrars of births, marriages and deaths. (177002,177003)

Every birth, death and marriage in England and Wales is registered locally in a register book. The Registrar General maintains a central archive of each registration created from paper certified copies of the original record. The certified copies are microfilmed to enable certificates to be issued by the General Register Office. The register entries and the central archive are the legal records of the event.

Since the early 1990's part of the registration process has been computerised to facilitate the collection of the information and the local printing of certificates. The computer records are backed up locally and copies are sent weekly to the Registrar General.

The information to be recorded by registrars of births, deaths and marriages is set out in statute and entered into a bound register book. Registers are kept locally in a secure fireproof store. In order to maintain the integrity of the records a register entry may be amended only by an authorised official and by the means set out in statute. The Registrar General maintains a central archive of all registrations made and any amendment made locally has to be duplicated in the central archive.