Marriage Act 1949

57 Quarterly returns to be made to superintendent registrar

(1) Every incumbent, registering officer of the Society of Friends, secretary of a synagogue, authorised person and registrar shall in the months of January, April, July and October—

(a) make and deliver to the superintendent registrar, on forms supplied by the Registrar General, a true copy certified by him under his hand of all entries of marriages made in the marriage register book kept by him during the period of three months ending with the last day Of the month immediately before the month in which the copy is required by this subsection to be made; or

(b) if no marriage has been registered in the said book during that period, deliver to the superintendent registrar a certificate of that fact under his hand, on a form supplied by the Registrar General.

(2) The certified copies and certificates required to be delivered by a registrar under the last foregoing subsection shall be delivered to the superintendent registrar on such days in the months of January, April, July and October as may be appointed by the Registrar General, and shall be certified by the registrar in the prescribed form.

(3) Any incumbent and any authorised person who is required by subsection (1) of this section to deliver to the superintendent registrar a certified copy of entries in the marriage register book or a certificate that no marriage has been registered, may deliver the copy or certificate to any registrar who is under the superintendence of that superintendent registrar, and every registrar who receives such a certified copy or certificate shall deliver it to the superintendent registrar ; and a superintendent registrar may direct the registrars under his superintendence quarterly or more often, if he thinks fit or is ordered so to do by the Registrar General, to collect any such certified copies or certificates from every incumbent and authorised person within his registration district.

(4) The superintendent registrar shall pay or cause to be paid to every incumbent and authorised person by whom a certified copy is delivered under subsection (1) of this section the sum of sixpence for every entry contained in the certified copy; and that sum shall be reimbursed to the superintendent registrar by the council of the county or county borough in which his registration district is situated:

Provided that where a registration district is in the administrative county of London the said sum shall be reimbursed to the superintendent registrar by—

(a) in the case of a registration district in a metropolitan borough, the council of that borough;

(b) in the case of a registration district in the City of London, the Common Council of that City.

(5) Where a certified copy is delivered to the superintendent registrar by a registrar under subsection (1) of this section, the superintendent registrar shall verify the copy and, if the copy is found to be correct, shall certify it under his hand to be a true copy; and where a certificate that no marriage has been registered is so delivered, the superintendent registrar shall countersign the certificate.

(6) A superintendent registrar who is not a salaried officer shall be entitled to receive the sum of two pence for every entry in the certified copies delivered to him under this section, and shall four times in every year make out an account of the number of entries in the certified copies delivered to him during the preceding three months.