APPENDIX C
Further letter from the Committee Specialist to
the General Register Office dated 19 October 2004
Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registration
of Births and Deaths) (England and Wales) Order 2004: request
for further information
Thank you for the letter of 18 October 2004 from
Dennis Roberts, answering those questions designated for urgent
answer in my previous letter to you dated 12 October.
The Regulatory Reform Committee deliberated on further
aspects of this proposed Regulatory Reform Order at its meeting
today and resolved to seek further information from the General
Register Office in relation to a number of aspects of it. The
issues which concern the Committee are set out below, under the
relevant categories for consideration in the Regulatory Reform
Act and the Committee's Standing Order. For clarity, the numbering
of questions follows on from the earlier letter.
The Committee would find it helpful if it could consider
the GRO's response to two questions arising from the substance
of Mr Roberts' letter at its next meeting. Could I therefore
ask you to respond to questions 67 and 68 below by no later than
noon on Monday, 25 October. It will be helpful to have your response
to the remaining questions in this letter by Tuesday, 2 November.
Urgent questions (for answer by noon on 25
October)
1. In its first question the Committee asked
the Department how the duties which the present law imposes on
qualified informants affect those persons "in the carrying
on of any activity". In its response the Department states
that "the activity concerned is the registration of births
and deaths" and that "the group of persons affected
by burdens in carrying on any activity is the public and registration
officers in particular, and the activity is the registration of
births and deaths".
2. The Committee agrees that registration officers
carry on the activity of registering births and deaths (so that
burdens imposed on them in the carrying of that activity may be
reformed under the RRA). It does not understand how it is the
case that qualified informants carry on that activity.
Q 67 What the Committee wishes the Department
to explain is in the carrying on of what activity by them are
qualified informants subject to the duties imposed on them under
sections 2, 16(3) and 17(3) of the Births and Deaths Registration
Act 1953. If in the Department's view those persons are not carrying
on any activity for present purposes, in what way is it thought
that the duties imposed on them affect registration officers in
the carrying on of their registration activities?
3. In its response to the Committee's fourth
question the Department states that many burdens imposed on the
Registrar General affect registration officers and local authorities.
Q 68 Please will the Department explain whether
those burdens which do not appear to affect registration officers
or local authorities (those imposed by section 3A(1) to (4) of
the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, for example) affect
only the Registrar General and, if so, only a government department.
Other questions (for answer by Tuesday, 2 November)
Whether the proposals have been the subject
of, and taken appropriate account of, estimates of increases or
reductions in costs or other benefits which may result from their
implementation (S.O. No. 141(6)(m)
4. The Committee has considered the Regulatory
Impact Assessment produced on the proposal and the estimates this
makes of increases or reductions in costs, where these can meaningfully
be quantified. The Committee would find it helpful to have your
responses to the following points in relation to the issues of
costs, savings and other benefits.
Options and Benefits
Q 69 Please indicate whether funding to registration
authorities will be ring-fenced?
Q 70 Please indicate how inclusion in the
Best Value and Comprehensive Performance Assessments inspection
regimes might affect the regularity with which registration services
would be reviewed.
Q 71 Please indicate who would have responsibility
for inspection over remote entries to the Register.
Q 72 Please indicate what evidence exists
to support the view that offering postal registrations will reduce
the number of remote registrations
Q 73 Please indicate why the GRO believes
the accuracy and integrity of records would be more likely to
be compromised in transferring information from paper to the Register
as opposed to from a telephone or on-line registration.
Q 74 The RIA does not identify any options
for the 'records' section objectives of:
a. Modernising the system for capturing and
holding civil registration information relating to births and
deaths;
b. Modernising the system for updating civil
registrations information relating to births and deaths; and
c. Putting in place arrangements for archiving
existing paper birth and death records held locally.
Please therefore indicate what options have been
considered, which are the preferred courses of action and what
are the related costs and benefits.
Costs
Q 75 Please provide evidence supporting the
estimate of £5 million for the development of the national
database, breaking the costs down between:
- Database design and development
- Hardware
- Networking and remote access
- On-going maintenance
- Systems upgrades
- Re-archiving of records onto the latest formats
- Record-checking (querying) facility for private
sector and other government departments
- Security systems to prevent unauthorised access
or manipulation to records
- Contingency arrangements
Q 76 Please indicate how was the estimate
of £20m for the conversion of the records of the existing
population determined.
Q 77 Please indicate how much you estimate
the ICT infrastructure, accommodation, management, training and
staffing will cost for i) the contact centre and ii) for the on-line
processing centre?
Q 78 Please indicate what estimates have been
made of take-up rates for telephone and on-line registrations
over the next 10 years and how these might affect contact and
on-line processing centre costs.
Q 79 How much will the creation of 'life-records'
cost in terms of additional staff time?
Q 80 Please indicate how many queries (identity
searches) the GRO estimates the database will be asked to perform
each day and what will be its maximum capability. How does this
compare to the number of query requests received on similar systems?
Q 81 Please indicate how the fees for services,
prescribed in Schedule 5 of the proposed Order have been costed.
Are fees intended to cover the cost of the database development
and on-going maintenance and, if so, when do you expect to break
even?
Q 82 Please provide evidence supporting the
calculation of the likely reduction to income and costs in the
registration service of £8 million and £23 million respectively.
Q 83 By how much do you estimate benefit fraud
will reduce as a result of imposing restricted access to birth
and death records?
Q 84 Does the GRO expect a wider range of
businesses to begin checking registration records once electronic
searches are available? If so, what are the projections? How
much revenue do you expect to raise from these and will any of
this be re-distributed to registration authorities?
Unintended Consequences
Q 85 Do you foresee a significant number of
claims under employment legislation by Registrars once they are
local authority employees? Will this legislative protection have
any other effects on the way registrars conduct their work, for
example, reduced weekend or day-time office hours?
Q 86 Do you believe a greater number of false
applications will be made by identity fraudsters who may perceive
the changes in provisions as a relaxation of the law?
Q 87 What indications have the private sector
given as to whether they will pass on the costs of identity checks
to the consumer in the form of higher insurance premiums, less
favourable credit terms, etc?
Q 88 If additional statistical information
given is false, this may impact on public policy decisions. Please
indicate how its accuracy will be verified.
Whether the proposals appear to be incompatible
with]any obligation resulting from membership of the European
Union (S.O. No. 141(6)(i))
5. The Committee is required to consider in each
case whether a proposal for an RRO appears to be incompatible
with any obligation resulting from membership of the European
Union.
6. This issue is not addressed explicitly in
the explanatory statement, although the Committee notes, and agrees
with, the statement in Chapter 22 that the proposals are not incompatible
with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Q 89 What account has been taken of obligations
arising from membership of the European Union in drawing up the
proposed RRO?
Whether the proposals have been the subject
of, and taken appropriate account of, adequate consultation (S.O.
No. 141(6)(d))
7. The Committee notes the numerous responses
to the GRO's consultation exercise on the proposals. In relation
to the consultation process, it would welcome further information
from the GRO in relation to the account taken of some specific
points and responses.
Q 90 What account was taken of the British
Humanist Association's concerns on competition from local authorities
in relation to secular baby-naming ceremonies?
Q 91 What account was taken of the concerns
about restricted information in death certificates raised on behalf
of people brought up separately from their natural family who
were trying to find out about their family medical history from
death records?
Q 92 What was the GRO's response to the concerns
raised by CIFAS and the REaD Group on list cleaning?
Q 93 What account was taken of the appeal
from the Association of Family History Societies of Wales for
'Address' to be included on the details supplied?
Q 94 Can the GRO clarify how many responses
were received to the consultation; and how many responses were
received to each of the points on which are reported in Appendix
2 to the Regulatory Impact Assessment?
Whether the proposals satisfy the test of proportionality
between burdens and benefits set out in sections 1 and 3 of the
Regulatory Reform Act (S.O. No. 141(6)(k))
Through life records
Q 95 Please indicate what estimates the GRO
has made of the rate at which it would be possible to establish
through-life records for persons in England and Wales.
Q 96 Please indicate whether any disadvantages
in terms of ease of access to public or commercial services might
arise for those persons who after a period of 10 years were not
the subject of through-life records within the register, whether
by virtue of having been born in another jurisdiction or for any
other reason, and if not, why not.
Access to registration records
Q 97 Please explain the practical operation
of the current arrangements for access by members of the public
to information held in registration records and describe how the
move to the proposed new system would deliver an overall improvement
to the accessibility and availability of registration records.
Q 98 Please indicate the considerations which
led to the setting of the proposed time restrictions on the full
public availability of registration records in Schedule 9.
Q 99 Please indicate what representations
may have been made to the GRO in the period when this proposal
was being developed concerning the desirability of restricting
the availability of cause of death information and what account
was taken of them in formulating the proposal.
Whether the proposals continue necessary protection
(S.O.No. 141(6)(c))
Form of the register
Q 100 Please provide details of the Registrar
General's intentions in respect of:
a) how the proposed register will be made secure
against unauthorised access by persons outside the registration
service, whether for purposes of viewing information or amending
data held within it;
b) arrangements for disaster recovery in the event
of major software, hardware or other accidental or intended facility
damage.
Amendment to the registration of a birth where
the parents are not married
7. The Committee notes that Article 27 of the
proposed Order provides an amended procedure for entering the
name of a person as father of a still-born child.
Q 101 Please explain why it is no longer regarded
as necessary for claims to the paternity of a still-born child
to be supported by declarations in the forms required by section
10(1) of the Birth and Death Registration Act 1953 and why the
removal of such a requirement does not remove a necessary protection.
Q 102 Please indicate what evidence the GRO
considers the Registrar General or a registration authority might
consider satisfactory evidence of a man's paternity under Article
27 of the proposed Order.
8. Article 16(11) replaces the current requirements
for the addition of the father's name to other birth entries.
In place of the requirements for two declarations (one of which
must be a statutory declaration by the parent who is not requesting
the change) the proposal would require only a simple declaration
by that parent, or a court finding that the person to be registered
as father is the father. In the latter case no corroboration would
be required of the facts found by the court where the finding
was based solely on the evidence of the person seeking the alteration.
9. This is at odds with the procedure for correcting
the identity of the father shown in an entry which was added to
the present Act by the Deregulation (Correction of Birth and Death
Entries in Registers or Other Records) Order 2002. This requires
that, if it appears to the registrar that the only evidence on
which the finding was based was that of the person making the
declaration, another credible person with knowledge of the facts
must confirm the facts. This requirement is reproduced in article
28 of the proposed order for corrections to the identity
of the father. The Committee think that a similar point could
arise in relation to additions of the father's name. The
Committee therefore wish to ask the GRO to explain why provision
for corroboration of court findings based on the sole evidence
of the person seeking the amendment is not required in the latter
case also.
Q 103 Please indicate why provision for corroboration
of court findings based on the sole evidence of the person seeking
the amendment is not required in the latter case also.
Access to particulars of a still-birth
Q 104 In what circumstances the GRO considers
that the Registrar General, acting under proposed new powers to
be created by Article 36 of the Order, might see fit to make a
record of still-birth available to a person other than the parents,
and to whom?
Definition of 'relative'
Q 105 Please explain the meaning of the term
"unregistered civil partner" as used at Article 63(5)(f)(ii)
of the proposed Order.
Q 106 Please indicate whether it is expected
that this term will be given an explicit legal definition in the
Civil Partnerships Bill, and if so, please supply the intended
definition.
19 October 2004
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