Registration: Proposals for Change - Proposals for Change

The present system of registering births, deaths and marriages and the procedures connected with civil marriage and religious marriage other than in the established Church date from 1837.

In some respects they have changed very little since then.

Thus, although the registration service functions well within its nineteenth-century limitations it is basically out of tune with modern requirements and cannot respond as flexibly and sympathetically as it would wish to the present expectations of the public. The proposals in the white paper are designed to reform and modernize the registration service in England and Wales, rationalizing some procedures and making the whole system more flexible.