General Register Office introduces new charges

01 March 2010

New charges for people ordering birth, marriage and death certificates were announced today by Registrar General James Hall.

From Tuesday 6 April 2010 the eight separate fees currently charged by the General Register Office (GRO) for ordering a certificate will be reduced to two - one for standard orders and one for the priority service.

The changes - the first for the GRO since 2003 - will ensure that the costs of providing the service are recovered from fees and not subsidised by the taxpayer.

Mr Hall said:

"The General Register Office receives more than two million certificate orders every year, the vast majority of which, over 90 per cent, are ordered online.

"This is our first change to fees since 2003 and we believe that the new fee structure will be simpler to use for our customers.

GRO certificate services are self-financing and costs must be recovered to ensure taxpayers do not subsidise them. This is a responsibility we take extremely seriously.

"We will continue to play our part in keeping costs as low as possible by bringing in technological efficiencies and improvements."

The cost of ordering certificates online with a GRO reference number, using the standard service, will rise from £7.00 to £9.25. A number of other charges, however, will fall to this new standard fee, including those for certificates where customers do not know the reference number.

Three of the four priority overnight service charges will also fall to a flat fee of £23.40.

The Registrar General has also announced new fees to be charged by the Local Registration Service throughout England and Wales for issuing copies of certificates, and officiating at weddings and civil partnerships for those who are housebound or detained.

The charge for registering marriages at registered buildings - those buildings that are registered for the solemnization of religious marriages other than Anglican churches - has also been changed.

These new fees, which also come into effect on 6 April, reflect the actual cost of providing the services and follows a review undertaken by local authorities together with the GRO.

For more information on GRO services and to order certificates online go to www.direct.gov.uk/gro

Notes to Editors

1. The changes were made in consultation with HM Treasury and laid before parliament today (1 March).

2. From 6 April, fees charged by GRO for birth, marriage and death certificates ordered online, by telephone, or by post will be as follows:

Current Service		Existing Fee	New Service	Fee
Standard	Online - reference quoted	£7.00	Standard	£9.25
	Online - no reference	£10.00
	Offline - correct reference	£8.50
	Offline - no reference	£11.50

Priority	Online - reference quoted	£23.00	Priority	£23.40
	Online - no reference	£26.00
	Offline - reference quoted	£24.50
	Offline - no reference	£27.50

Standard - despatch on the fourth working day from receipt of order, or the fifteenth working day when no reference number is quoted.

Priority - despatch on the next working day from receipt of order, if received before 4pm.

3. From 6 April, fees charged by the Local Registration Service for various services will be as follows:

Statutory Service / Product	Existing Fee from 1/4/2005	Fee from 6/4/2010
*Main fees*
Certificate issued by Superintendent Registrar (SR)	£7	£9
Short certificate issued by a SR	£5.50	£9
'Special' certificate issued by a SR	£7	£9
Certificate issued by a registrar at the time of registration	£3.50	£3.50 no change
Certificate issued by a registrar otherwise than at the time of registration	£3.50	£7 (new fee)
Marriage notice	£30	£33.50
Registrar's fee for a Register Office marriage	£40 (1/12/2005)	£40 no change
*Other fees*
Registrar's fee for attending a marriage at a registered building or for the housebound and detained	£47	£80
SR's fee for attesting a notice of marriage away from his office for housebound or detained	£47	£49
SR's fee for attending a marriage of the housebound or detained.	£47	£85

Registration Authorities, England and Wales - Fees from 6 April 2010 (Civil Partnerships)

Statutory Service / Product	Existing Fee from 1/12/2005	Fee from 6/4/2010
*Main fees*
Certified copy / extract issued by registration authority at time of registration	£3.50	£3.50 no change
Certified copy / extract issued after the time of registration	£7	£9
Civil partnership notice	£30	£33.50
Signing by the civil partnership registrar of the civil partnership schedule	£40	£40 no change
*Other fees*
Attendance of authorised person for civil partnership notice for the housebound or detained	£47	£49
Attendance of civil partnership registrar for purpose of signing schedule at housebound or detained	£47	£80
Giving notice to registration authority under Civil Partnership (Registration Abroad and Certificates) Order 2005	£30	£33.50

4. For all media enquiries call the Home Office Press Office on 020 7035 3535.

Back to previous