new price for GRO certs

[davidft]

Thank you for your clarification.

Alas I think it has made the situation worse not better ....

[anniecranky]

If you live in Manchester as I do you could always visit Manchester Central Library - I wanted a copy of my Grandparents marriage cert and went to Manchester Central Library - if you can get there on a Thursday there a volunteers who help you find the details you are looking  and then you can take the reel of film to a machine and print the cert, which I did and it only cost me 50p - quite a big difference than forking out £7.00 but only if you are lucky enough to have something like Central Library.

Unfortunatley at the moment the Library is having a refurb so it is closed for a few months as I wanted to return to find birth and death certs, until it re-opens I am going to have a look at the records in Salford Library Museum as that is where nearly all my family lived.

Annie 

[Plummiegirl]

With the GRO putting up their prices, the one concern which has been aired here is that all the other places where you can get copies such as Registrars Offices and local resources will also put up their prices in line with the GRO. Especially if more people go to them as they are cheaper. 
Many of the local resources just do not have the staff to help everyone who may turn up.  They could also start charging more per hour for postal searches (at present it is around £25.00).

Maybe we should all petition our local MP's about this.

[Sloe Gin]

If you live in Manchester as I do you could always visit Manchester Central Library - I wanted a copy of my Grandparents marriage cert and went to Manchester Central Library - if you can get there on a Thursday there a volunteers who help you find the details you are looking and then you can take the reel of film to a machine and print the cert, which I did and it only cost me 50p - quite a big difference than forking out £7.00 but only if you are lucky enough to have something like Central Library.

.... I wanted to return to find birth and death certs

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're talking about parish registers.  

The original marriage cert held by the local registrar is similar to the parish register entry for a church wedding; couples sign two forms, one for the church records and one for the registrar.  So it is usually possible to get a copy of the church entry at low cost from the record office which holds the parish registers (in this case, Manchester Central Library).  This will contain the same info as the marriage certificate.

However, baptism and burial entries in the parish registers do not normally contain the same information as the certificates, and of course not all births and deaths are necessarily recorded in the PRs.  So not as useful as the marriages as an alternative to buying certificates.

[Plummiegirl]

Instead of us all complaining on here, please do what I have just done & contact your Local MP.

I have just emailed mine (Nick Raynsford) and asked for his comments on this sudden 32% price hike.

Don't just sit there moaning, try do something about it. 

[dobfarm]

I would image the answer to your petition would be something along the lines of-

 "If we allow the fee for certificates to remain at £7 that would mean that millions of tax payers were subsidising the production of the requested certificates

This has never been a problem before, therefore why should it be a problem now? All the way through the recession the prices have remained the same, and their reasoning that it 'would make things easier' for customers is pure idiocy.

Matt

I can't understand why they have not rounded it off at £10 a certificate that would make things easier for all.

[davidft]

for anyone still aggrieved at the price increase the accounts for the GRO are on the IPS website

http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/index.htm

Go to the corporate section, look at the publications and the accounts for 2008-9 are listed. On page 33 of 75 of the accounts it gives the breakdown for the GRO and shows they made a massive loss in the year in question.....

[Nick29]

I hope no local authority chief execs on their £500K salaries are reading this! 

there is not a single local authority chief executive on a salary of £500k or anything like that.

Making statements like that makes it easy for the bigwigs at the GRO to rubbish all the relevant and considered posts on this thread as they merely point to the foolish ones and tar all the others with the same brush 

Yes, but should someone on a local council earn more than the Prime Minister ?

Essex Council Chief earns £50,000 more than PM - Link

[coombs]

People have been experiencing quick deliveries of GRO certs lately. I am awaiting 5 certs which I ordered last Friday night. They haven't arrived yet but the last lot I ordered arrived on Thursday (the day before I placed my latest order) and I ordered them the previous Saturday.