| SUMMARY
The civil registration of a birth or death is an important life event that affects everyone. The proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registration of Births and Deaths) (England and Wales) Order 2004 is designed to modernise that area of law in England and Wales which governs the process of the registration of the births and deaths of individuals and, in so doing, to permit reforms to the way in which registration services are managed and provided.
The legal reforms arising from the proposal and the non-statutory administrative changes it would engender would enable the modernisation of a necessary service that has changed little since it was first established in the 1830's.
The registration system, while it is widely considered to function effectively, fails adequately to reflect current forms of family relationship; is perceived to be anachronistically organised around the act of completing written entries in paper registers in the physical presence of informants at Register Offices; and also is legally unable to make use of computer technology in either the communication of data for entry into the registers, the keeping of the formal records (i.e. 'the register' itself), or the subsequent supply of information from the register to those who have a need or a wish to view it.
In addition to changing how records are produced and kept, the Government proposes to reform the structure and status of the local registration service, making it effectively a function of the local authority in each area.
In our scrutiny of the proposals we have been aware that many concerns articulated in respect of the General Register Office's original proposals at consultation stage have yet to be addressed. To some extent, more detailed development work of the new computer-based registration system is still in process and detailed information about how aspects of that system will function in practice are as yet unknown.
After having taken further oral and written evidence from the responsible Minister, the General Register Office and a number of interested parties we have concluded that the Government has not provided a sufficiently convincing case for us to conclude the proposals are suitable for introduction by delegated legislation. We also have concerns about the vires of aspects of the proposal.
The Committee considers that the sweeping nature of the proposed changes in such a sensitive area makes the proposal inappropriate for implementation by means of a regulatory reform order.
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