Register office

A register office, much more commonly registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths and marriages are officially recorded and civil marriages take place. It is the local civil registry office. There is no direct equivalent in the USA, but the bureaus of vital statistics perform some similar tasks.

In England and Wales, register offices record births, marriages and deaths and conduct civil marriage and partnership ceremonies. Set up by Act of Parliament in 1837, the statutory registration service is overseen by the Registrar General as part of the General Register Office, part of the Home Office Identity and Passport Service but provided locally by local authorities.

Similar rules regarding registration have applied in Scotland since 1855 and in Northern Ireland since 1845 for non-Catholic marriages and 1864 for births, deaths and all marriages.

The Register Office is the office of the Superintendent Registrar of the district, in whose custody are all the registers dating back to 1837. The Superintendent Registrar is also responsible for conducting the legal preliminaries to marriage and conducting civil partnership ceremonies.

Registrations are carried out by a registrar and each registration district will have one or more registrars and each may be responsible for a particular sub-district.

Since 1994, the range of services offered by register offices has expanded so that they may now provide additional celebratory services including statutory citizenship and civil partnership ceremonies and non-statutory ceremonies such as naming and renewal of vows. All civil ceremonies may also take place in local approved premises, including hotels and public buildings.

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