General Register Office introduces new charges
31st March 2010
The General Register Office (GRO) has announced new charges for birth, marriage and death certificates from 6th April 2010. The new prices are the first changes to come into effect since 2003. The price of certificates will rise to £9.25 (up from £7). A certificate ordered via their priority service will now cost £23.40 (up from £23.00). The GRO has announced it wants to ensure the costs of providing the service are recovered from fees and not subsidised by the taxpayer. Other documents, such as Wills and Decrees, are not affected as these are supplied by different Government agencies.
The GRO has also announced that it will be withdrawing its checking service, which previously allowed researchers applying for a certificate to request a cross-check against known facts about the family. For example, in the case of a search for issue of a marriage where the father’s name was already known, the researcher could ask to be issued with certificates only for those register entries where the details matched. If the criteria were not met, the GRO gave a £4 part-refund rather than issuing an irrelevant birth certificate.
Title Research always tries to avoid unnecessary disbursement purchases and we will continue to use the other resources at our disposal to minimise the impact of the rise in the statutory fee for certificates. In fact, as a result of our extensive in-house databases and recently released census records, there has been a general decline in the number of certificates we have ordered and we will continue to be vigilant to ensure costs are kept at a minimum.
Title Research is always here to help, so please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about these changes.