Issue of the certificate is definitely within the statutory duty,
Envelope, postal costs and time taken accounting for all services could be argued about but I would expect that they would be within the statutory duty as Parliament could easily have envisaged that issue of the certificate would not always be immediate. Indeed, Salford's own procedures envisage posting out within 2 days for personal applications as well as postal ones so that argues that it is within the statutory duty.
I don't think, though, that searching the manual records (by the registrar's staff) is covered by the statutory duty and, given how little time £1 buys these days, I wouldn't have thought it an unreasonable amount.
The current text on the Statute Law database for the relevant Acts is:
Marriage Act 1949
64. Searches of indexes kept by superintendent registrars.— (1) Every superintendent registrar shall cause indexes of the marriage register books in his office to be made and to be kept with the other records of his office, and the Registrar General shall supply to every superintendent registrar suitable forms for the making of such indexes.
(2) Any person shall be entitled [F1 at any time when the register office is required to be open for the transaction of public business] to search the said indexes, and to have a certified copy of any entry in the said marriage register books under the hand of the superintendent registrar, on payment to the superintendent registrar of the following fee, that is to say:—
(a)for every general search, the sum of [F2 £18.00]
(b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F3
(c)for every certified copy, the sum of [F4 £7.00]
Annotations:
Amendments (Textual)
F1 Words substituted by Registration Service Act 1953 (c. 37), Sch. 1 para. 14(a)
F2 Fee in s. 64(2)(a) payable (1.4.1998) by virtue of S.I. 1997/2939, art.2, Sch. (which S.I. was revoked (1.4.1999) by S.I. 1998/3171, art. 3) and that same fee payable: (1.4.1999) by virtue of S.I. 1998/3171, art. 2, Sch. (which S.I. was revoked (1.4.2000) by S.I. 1999/3311, art. 3); (1.4.2000) by virtue of S.I. 1999/3311, art. 2, Sch. (which S.I was revoked (1.4.2003) by S.I. 2002/3076, art. 3); (1.4.2003
and Births & Deaths Registration Act 1953
31. Searches of indexes kept by superintendent registrars.— (1) Every superintendent registrar shall cause indexes of the registers of live–births and registers of deaths in his register office to be made and to be kept with the other records of that office, and the Registrar General shall supply to every superintendent registrar suitable forms for the making of such indexes.
(2) Any person shall be entitled at any time when the register office is required to be open for the transaction of public business to search the said indexes, and to have a certified copy of any entry in the said registers under the hand of the superintendent registrar, on payment by that person to the superintendent registrar of the following fees respectively, that is to say—
(a)for every general search, the sum of [F1 £18.00];
(b). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F2
(c)for every certified copy, the sum of [F3 £7.00].
Annotations:
Amendments (Textual)
F1 Fee in s. 31(2)(a) payable (1.4.2003) by virtue of S.I. 2002/3076, art. 2, Sch.
F2 S. 31(2)(b) repealed by S.I. 1968/1242, Sch. 2
F3 Fee in s. 31(2)(c) substituted (1.4.2003) by S.I. 2002/3076, art. 2, Sch.
There is similar wording for searches of indexes kept by Registrar General, the main difference as far as this debate goes being that there is a fee for searching indexes held by superintendant registrars and none for searching registers held by the Registrar General (leaving aside, for the moment, any current lack of access to the latter).
I've been thinking about this over the last few days and back to visits to Myddleton Street where one searched the indexes oneself, found the entry one wanted and wrote the
exact reference on the application form so that GRO staff could go straight to the entry without any searching.
Given the similarity of the wording I think that "have a certified copy of any entry" in the case of superintendant registrars also depends on the applicant being able to point out the exact entry.
i.e. I go into Salford Register Office looking for the birth of Joe Bloggs some time in the 1920s (say), find it in the index, write the
exact details on the form and hand it to the registrar and pay £9
or I apply by post, by telephone with a debit/credit card or on-line using the procedure at
http://www.salford.gov.uk/familyhistory.htm and linked pages (which
includes asking the registrar to search for Joe Bloggs rather than giving the exact details of the certificate required) and
pay an extra £1 for that search, which is outside the statutory duty.
Graham
