. Register offices were established in
England and Wales in 1837, with similar legislation being introduced for
Scotland in 1855 and
Ireland in 1845.
England and Wales In
England and Wales the current registration service is overseen by the
Registrar General as part of the
General Register Office, part of the
Home Office Identity and Passport Service but provided locally by local authorities. A register office is the office of the superintendent registrar of the district, in whose custody are all the registers dating back to 1837. Registrations are carried out by a registrar and each
registration district will have one or more registrars and each may be responsible for a particular sub-district. Since 1994, the range of services offered by register offices has expanded so that they may now provide additional celebratory services including statutory
citizenship and civil partnership ceremonies and non-statutory ceremonies such as naming and renewal of vows. Civil ceremonies may also take place in local approved premises, including hotels and public buildings. On 1 December 2007, all registrars and superintendent registrars in
England and Wales became employees of the local authorities providing the registration service, having been statutory officers with no legal employment status. This came about as a result of the
Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 following decades of campaigning by the trade unions that represented registration officers in England and Wales, the
Society of Registration Officers and
UNISON.
Scotland . In 2011, the
General Register Office for Scotland was merged to form the
National Records of Scotland - a department of the devolved
Scottish Government - with the position of registrar general for Scotland being held by the same individual as the keeper of the Records of Scotland.
Northern Ireland The
General Register Office in
Belfast is responsible for local register offices in
Northern Ireland. ==Ireland==