The Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Fees) (Amendment) and Multilingual Standard Forms Regulations 2018

Citation and commencement E+W

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Fees) (Amendment) and Multilingual Standard Forms Regulations 2018.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 16th February 2019.

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 1 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Interpretation E+W

2.  In these Regulations—

“the Fees Regulations” means the Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships (Fees) Regulations 2016(1).

“the Records Regulations” means the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships Records Regulations 2016(2).

“relevant authority” means a superintendent registrar, registrar or registration authority.

“relevant local office” means any place where a relevant authority provides standard or priority certificate services.

Commencement Information

I2 Reg. 2 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Amendment of the Fees Regulations E+W

3.  The Fees Regulations are amended as follows.

Commencement Information

I3 Reg. 3 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Amendment of regulation 2 (interpretation) E+W

4.—(1) In the definition of a “priority service”—

(a) for “is a service provided to a person who makes an application to the Registrar General” substitute “means”;

(b) before paragraph (a) insert—

“(a) “a service provided to a person who makes an application to the Registrar General—”;

(c) paragraph (a) is renumbered as sub-paragraph (i) and sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) are renumbered, respectively, as paragraphs (aa) and (bb);

(d) paragraph (b) is renumbered as sub-paragraph (ii);

(e) after sub-paragraph (ii) as so renumbered insert—

“(b) in the case of a fee that is payable to a relevant authority, a service provided to a person who makes the application to the relevant authority by—

(i) giving the relevant information and paying the correct fee by—

(aa) attending in person at the Relevant Local Office between 10:00 and 15:00 hours on a working day; or

(bb) post, telephone or electronic means which is received by the relevant authority before 15.00 hours on a working day; and

(ii) where the document applied for is normally provided on or before the next working day, sending by first class post or to a person attending at the Relevant Local Office between 10:00 hours and 15:00 hours;”.

(2) In the definition of “relevant information” after paragraph (b) insert—

“(c) in the case of a certified copy of an entry provided under section 64(2) of the 1949 Act(3) or section 31(2) of the 1953 Act(4), either a reference number relating to an index kept by a Superintendent Registrar under section 64(1) of the 1949 Act or section 31(1) of the 1953 Act corresponding to the certified copy for which the application is made, or sufficient information which allows the Superintendent Registrar to establish such a reference number;

(d) in the case of a certified copy of an entry provided by a registrar under section 63(1) of the 1949 Act(5) or section 32 of the 1953 Act(6), sufficient information to enable a registrar to identify an entry in the register of an event registered in that district;

(e) in the case of a certified copy of an entry provided under regulation 13 of the Civil Partnership (Registration Provisions) Regulations 2005(7), either a reference number relating to an index kept by the Registrar General corresponding to the certified copy or certified extract for which the application is made, or sufficient information which allows the Registrar General to establish such a reference number;

(f) in the case of a certified copy of an entry provided under regulation 14 of the Civil Partnership (Registration Provisions) Regulations 2005, either a reference number relating to an index kept by the registration authority corresponding to the certified copy or certified extract for which the application is made, or sufficient information which allows the registration authority to establish such a reference number.”.

(3) In the definition of a “standard service”—

(a) before paragraph (a) insert—

“(a) in the case of a fee that is payable to the Registrar General, a service—”;

(b) paragraph (a) is renumbered as sub-paragraph (i) and in paragraph (a) sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) are renumbered respectively as paragraphs (aa) and (bb);

(c) paragraph (b) is renumbered as sub-paragraph (ii) and in paragraph (b) sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) are renumbered respectively as paragraphs (aa) and (bb);

(d) after paragraph (a) as so renumbered insert—

“(b) in the case of a fee that is payable to a relevant authority—

(i) a service provided to a person who makes an application to the relevant authority by giving the relevant information and paying the correct fee by—

(aa) attending in person at the relevant local office between 10:00 and 15:00 hours on a working day; or

(bb) post, telephone, or electronic means which is received by the relevant authority before 15:00 hours on a working day; and

(ii) a service where the document applied for is normally provided

on or before the 15th working day after the working day on which such application is made, by sending by second class post or to a person attending at the relevant local office between 10:00 hours and 15:00 hours;”.

Commencement Information

I4 Reg. 4 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Insertion of regulations 3B to 3F E+W

5.  After regulation 3A(8) insert—

“3B    Offline application fee

(1) Where an application is made to the Registrar General for a relevant service and the application is made by way of offline application, an additional non-refundable fee of £4.00 is payable to the Registrar General.

(2) The fee in paragraph (1) is not payable if, at the time of making the application, the online application service is not available.

(3) In this regulation—

“offline application” means an application for a service that is not made via the public website known as www.gov.uk;

“online application” means an application for a service that is made via the public website known as www.gov.uk.

“relevant service” means a service as set out in rows 16, 18, 22, 36, 39, 47, 49 and 50 of the table in Schedule 1(9).

3C    Premium postal service fee

(1) Where an application is made to the Registrar General for a copy or other record of any information held by the Registrar General using the priority service the Registrar General may, on request and upon payment of the applicable fee, provide the document by premium postal service and the applicable fee is —

(a) On a working day a fee of £7.25

(b) On a Saturday a fee of £19.25

(c) Overseas a fee of £12.00

(2) The fee for the premium postal service is—

(a) payable to the Registrar General;

(b) payable in addition to any other fee payable for provision of that document.

(3) In this regulation “premium postal service” means a postal service for which the fee payable to the Registrar General is in addition to the fee payable to the Registrar General for delivery of the same documents by first class post.

3D    General index search fee (no reference provided)

(1) Where an application is made to the Registrar General for a certified copy and the relevant information does not contain the reference from the relevant index kept by the Registrar General, an additional non-refundable fee of £3.00 is payable to the Registrar General to undertake the search of the index on the applicant’s behalf.

(2) The fee in regulation 3D(1) is not payable where the relevant index kept by the Registrar General is not available to the public for searching.

(b) “relevant index” means—

(i) any index kept by the Registrar General in relation to any register of births, deaths, marriages or civil partnerships; or

(ii) an index kept by the Registrar General pursuant to Regulation 23 of the Marriage of Same Sex Couples (Conversion of Civil Partnership) Regulations 2014(10).

3E    Retained fee

(1) A fee of £3.50 is retained by the Registrar General where an application is made to the Registrar General for a certified copy and the corresponding entry cannot be located from the relevant information provided.

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Textual Amendments

F1 Words in reg. 5 revoked (1.1.2024) by virtue of The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 (Revocation and Sunset Disapplication) Regulations 2023 (S.I. 2023/1143), reg. 2(3), Sch. 2 Pt. 1

Commencement Information

I5 Reg. 5 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Amendment of Schedule 1 (fees payable) E+W

6.  The Schedule (amendments to the table in Schedule 1 to the Fees Regulations) has effect.

Commencement Information

I6 Reg. 6 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Amendment of the Records Regulations E+W

7.  The Records Regulations are amended as follows—

(a) In regulation 2, in paragraph (3) omit “in accordance with regulation 6”;

(b) In regulation 3, in paragraph (3) omit “in accordance with regulation 6”;

(c) In regulation 4, in paragraph (3) omit “in accordance with regulation 6”;

(d) Omit regulation 6.

Commencement Information

I7 Reg. 7 in force at 16.2.2019, see reg. 1(2)

Caroline Nokes

Minister of State

Home Office

27th November 2018