Federation Of Family History Societies

Civil Registration

The Current Situation - August 2007

 

"Modernisation" + "Move to Kew " = "Grossly Inferior Service "

GRO Announcements on July 25th

July 25th 2007 was a watershed as far as Civil Registration facilities are concerned. On that day, the General Register Office (GRO) dropped the following bombshells (see GRO briefing paper for full text):-

• during October 2007, the paper indexes will start to be removed from the ground floor search room at the Family Records Centre (FRC) and go into storage.
• the search room will close from November 2007.
• until the move to Kew by April 2008, facilities to access the GRO indexes will be provided instead on the first floor of the FRC, but only on microfiche.
• over-the-counter ordering and collection services will cease from November 2007.

This brings forward by up to 5 months their previous plans, and gives less than 3 months notice before the changes start to affect users.

The announcements were made at the FRC User Group meeting, which was also told that:-

• digitising existing certificate records is now 12 months behind schedule.
• computerising new registrations, the system which crashed in April when it was extended countrywide, is still only available to some registration districts.
• development of online access to the new digitised indexes has been suspended.

Modernisation

There is a statutory requirement for public access to a complete set of the indexes of Births, Marriages and Deaths. Paper copies of these have been provided by the GRO, originally at Somerset House, at St Catherine's House from 1974 until 1997, and since then at the FRC in Islington. Microfiche copies of the indexes started to be provided for use by public libraries, archive offices and others and, more recently, licences were granted for the indexes to be scanned and their images published online. A White Paper was published in 2002 outlining plans that included replacing the paper indexes with computerised indexes, by keying details from digitised images of the GRO's copy certificates.

The GRO launched its Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) Project at the end of 2004.

• When the contract for this work was signed in the summer of 2005, the GRO confirmed that the digitisation should be completed by the end of 2007
• The January 2006 issue of the FRC Newsletter stated the project would be completed in the summer of 2008
• At the July 2007 FRC User Group meeting, the GRO stated the project was 12 months behind schedule

The keyed records and digitised images are stored on databases as part of an Electronic Access to GRO Legacy Events (EAGLE) system which the GRO will use internally to produce certificates for customers.

• The April 2007 FRC Newsletter stated EAGLE was scheduled for launch in early 2007
• The July 2007 FRC Newsletter stated technical issues have delayed the implementation, which is now due in the latter part of 2007

A new Registrations Online system was developed for registrars to handle the registrations of vital events.

• This was originally planned to go live at the beginning of January 2007
• When the FFHS met with the GRO staff in January, they said there were delays in the installation by BT of the necessary communications links, and that the worst-case scenario is an implementation date of 31st March 2007
• The system was implemented for a number of registrars but, when it was extended to the whole country in April 2007, the system crashed and had to be withdrawn
• At the July 2007 FRC User Group meeting, the GRO stated it had still only been re-introduced for part of the country

To provide internet access to the computerised indexes, the GRO initiated a Multiple Access to GRO Published Index Events (MAGPIE) Project.

• The January 2007 FRC Newsletter stated these indexes would start to be available on the internet from early 2008
• The April 2007 FRC Newsletter stated that most index searches would be possible online by April 2008
• At the July 2007 FRC User Group meeting, the GRO stated completion had slipped significantly beyond April 2008 and, because there are currently no funds agreed for the following financial year 2008-2009, the project has been suspended
• Yet the July 2007 FRC Newsletter, published after the User Group Meeting, makes no reference to this

Move To Kew

In January 2007 the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which the GRO is part of, made two announcements.

Firstly, it intended to close its public search facility at the FRC, and instead to make indexes available at The National Archives (TNA) in Kew. Relocation was expected to be complete by the end of March 2008. The services currently provided by ONS in Islington would then cease, including the current over-the-counter ordering and collection services.

By then, it was planned that all of the birth records and most of the death records would have been digitised and re-indexed, and the newly produced indexes would be accessible on computer screens at Kew.

Where digitisation was not yet completed, the existing indexes would be made accessible at Kew on microfiche and the corresponding paper indexes would be stored at Kew, and made available for records where the microfiche or online versions were inadequate.

Secondly, it was proposing to close its London headquarters at Drummond Gate, Pimlico, by 2010, and that 100 or so of the staff there would move to the FRC building.

Six months later, that has all changed.

It now appears the Drummond Gate staff will be moving to the FRC in April 2008, not 2010, That is why the ONS have brought forward the date for closure of the GRO facilities at the FRC, by 5 months, so that the ground floor can be refurbished from November onwards.

There will be no internet access to any of the computerised indexes, and researchers are expected to use the sets of indexes on microfiche. Neither will there be access to the existing paper indexes where the microfiche is inadequate. Those are all being transferred to the ONS's storage facilities in Christchurch, Hampshire.

The GRO plan to start transferring the indexes in October, and access to sets of microfiche will be provided instead on the first floor of the FRC, alongside TNA's facilities. When those move to Kew by April 2008 the sets of microfiche will also move.

 

What Can Be Done About It?

Unacceptability of Microfiche

The FFHS has written to GRO and TNA to point out the difficulties in deciphering some of the microfiche pages of the indexes. The FFHS has proposed that this be remedied by providing instead free access, at the FRC and subsequently at Kew, to the scanned images of the paper indexes provided online by a commercial company.

The GRO was asked at the FRC User Group meeting to investigate whether replacing the current paper indexes by microfiche was allowable in terms of the statute which obliges them to provide a publicly accessible index.

Timing of the Closure

The FFHS has also asked ONS to explain why the movement of staff from Drummond House to the FRC is now to take place 2 years earlier than originally announced: is it because the Metropolitan Police who own the building have given them notice to quit, or because of the need for budgetary savings? In other words, is there any leeway which allows them to revert to their original closure date for the FRC?

An  E-Petition has been set up on the government website which reads as follows:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure that the Office for National Statistics does not close the Family Records Centre earlier than originally stated. The ONS has just announced that the public search room at Myddelton Street is to close 5 months early. This will be a great loss to those researching their Family Histories, one of the fastest growing pastimes today."

Add your name to this e-petition, if you haven't already done so, and encourage your fellow researchers to do the same. At the time of writing, it has 640 signatories.

Internet Access to New Indexes

It is vitally important that the GRO's Multiple Access to GRO Published Index Events (MAGPIE) Project be resurrected as quickly as possible and implemented as speedily as possible. This requires the commitment of adequate funding and resources. The problem is that ONS's structure is being reviewed and there is uncertainty as to which Government Department the GRO will be part of for the next financial year. Once that is known, we can lobby to try to ensure the necessary funding is made available.

A More Radical Approach

Local Archives are the custodians of Historic Records and in some cases also responsible for Current Records Management. Applying the same principle nationally, TNA could in theory take over responsibility for the GRO. TNA's catalogue referencing has always made provision within its RG (Registrar General) Class of documents for RG1, RG2 and RG3 to contain Birth, Death and Marriage indexes respectively. TNA have a proven track record of listening to the needs of family historians and other researchers, and working with them to try to meet those needs.

The GRO's Charter Mark

The GRO was re-accredited in December 2005 with the Charter Mark, which amongst other things encourages innovation and service improvement. By achieving it, the GRO says on its website it "has demonstrated a commitment to meeting customers needs and delivering a first class service." If it is to retain its Charter Mark, it needs to rethink its current plans.

13th August 2007
Geoff Riggs, Chairman, FFHS