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General Register Office: Registration Review 2002 |
The Office of National Statistics has published (on 22 February) the long awaited General Register Office Registration Review. This is a government white paper outlining policy and plans to reform the existing legislation concerning the registration system using the recent Regulatory Reform Bill. This paper follows the responses to the consultation document Registration: Modernising a vital service in September 1999. Within this review are proposals concerning access to the Historic Records and changes in the information to be found on records less than 100 years old. Wider issues are also discussed. The paper can be purchased from the Stationery Office or found on the Stationery Office Web Site via the link White Paper (pdf)
The paper comprises some 62 pages. A text version can be downloaded from the Society’s own website.
The white paper does not state that comment should be received by any particular time but obviously the Society will wish to draw up a timetable for its response. A series of open seminars were held on 7th February at the Family Record Centre for the genealogical community (which had comprised some 50% of the responses to the 1999 consultation paper) to hear and ask questions of the ONS implementation policy team. This included Marily Troyano (ONS Implementation team) and Kieron Mahony (Policy and Legislation Manager, ONS). The Society of Genealogists’ Genealogy Officer attended the first meeting. See Else Churchills's report of the meeting . The Regulatory Reform Act requires a formal consultation period. Hence ONS will be issuing a further (and more detailed) consultation document in Autumn 2002 that will require formal response within three months.
Society of Genealogists committee members have been asked to forward to the Genealogy Officer by February 20 so these can be distilled for discussion at the Society’s Library and Records Committee meeting on February 26. Comments will then tabled for the Executive Committee meeting of March 12. The Society of Genealogists convenes the meetings of the British Genealogical Record Users Committee. A response to the review will of course be discussed when that Committee next meets on April 25th.
Society members are invited to forward any comments, in writing, to the Genealogy Officer who be preparing the response on behalf of the Society.
Genealogy Officer 7 February 2002