APPENDIX E
Response from the General Register Office to the
Committee Specialist
Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registration
of Births and Deaths) (England and Wales) Order 2004: response
to request for information
Q1. Please explain how the legislation which
would be affected by these provisions may be reformed by an order
under section 1 of the Regulatory Reform Act, given that the burdens
it imposes do not appear to affect persons in the carrying on
of any activity.
The key issues here are what the activities involved
are and whether there are any persons carrying them on.
The activity concerned is the registering of births
and deaths. The Order essentially affects how this activity is
performed. The registration of births and deaths is a significant
activity and, in terms of the Explanatory Notes to the 2001 Act,
is an ongoing matter for registration officers and local authorities.
In respect of the public, it is accepted that most
people are required to register few births and deaths during their
lives though in some cases (disclosure of information, corrections,
paternity issues) the involvement of an individual may well be
ongoing over a substantial period of time. For registration officers
and local authorities there is considerable ongoing activity.
Thus it is not accepted that the burdens the Order
imposes do not appear to affect persons in the carrying on of
any activity. 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.
Q2. Please explain how the new burdens which
would be created by these provisions fall within section 1(1)(c)(i)
of the Regulatory Reform Act.
The new burdens created by these provisions are burdens
that affect persons, and in particular registration officers,
in carrying on the activity of registering a birth or death. For
the reasons set out in response to Q1 these new burdens fall within
section 1(1)(c)(i).
Q3. Can you confirm that burdens imposed on
the Registrar General are not burdens which affect only a government
department, so that the legislation which imposes those burdens
may be reformed by RRO?
The Registrar General (for England and Wales) is
a statutory appointment whose functions are set out in the Registration
Acts. Present machinery of Government means that the present officeholder
is also the National Statistician and the Permanent Secretary
of the Office for National Statistics.
The Registrar General - the head of the civil registration
service - is responsible for the work of Registration Officers,
who are also statutory appointees, and their staff who are employed
by local authorities. Many burdens imposed on the Registrar General
affect Registration Officers and local authorities as well as
the Registrar General's own staff.
Q67. 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?
As regards persons whose status as qualified informants
has not been changed by the Order, the activity they carry on
is the carrying out of the obligations of a qualified informant.
As regards persons whose status as qualified informants
is newly established by the Order (which is only executors of
wills), the activity they carry on, is being an executor of the
will of the deceased.
As regards other changes to the list of qualified
informants, these are made -
in reliance on section 1(1)(d) of the 2001
Act: removing inconsistencies and anomalies in the burdens affecting
persons in the carrying on of the activity of registering births
and deaths - see section 1(2)(dd) and section 16(2)(ca) of the
1953 Act, or
in reliance on section 1(6) of the 2001 Act:
incidental or supplemental provision, to modernise the language
- see section 16(2)(e) and (f) and section 17(2)(d) of the 1953
Act.
Q68. 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.
These are burdens which affect the Registrar General
only. However, the Registrar General is not a government department
- see s.1-2 of the Registration Service Act 1953.
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