There are 4 attachments to this publication. Those are the 4 signed approvals for each of the 4 groups of councils. The wording below reflects the approval for group 1.
Background information
An approval from the Registrar General that a transcribed signature may be used for an informant during in person registration is required to help implement the Calling in the Register Pages project.
This project aims to ensure that the life event registers (birth, still-birth, death, marriage, civil partnership, Register of Corrections etc) are created and held electronically, rather than on paper, and to facilitate this, digital signatures are required.
The approval only applies to birth, still-birth and death registers. Current methods of attestation in Marriage and civil partnership registers and the Register of Corrections etc already meet the project’s requirements.
Provision has been made to prescribe a manuscript signature as the manner of attestation on the Birth Registration Form for a birth, Birth Registration Form for a still-birth and the Death Registration Form (these forms are commonly known as the ‘register page’).
Where an informant does not attend the registration office to provide the particulars for registration, provision has been made in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022, amending the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965, which enables the register page to be attested on behalf of an informant by the registrar, where a direction has been made by the district registrar to provide for the methods by which the particulars can be provided. The Registrar General has approved that during a remote registration, the registrar should ask the informant(s) how their usual signature reads. The registrar should then attest on behalf of the informant/s by inserting the signature on to the register page followed by “(Transcribed)”.
The Registrar General has made Regulations which include that during an in-person registration, the informant(s) should make the attestation by a manuscript signature (a wet ink signature) on the register page.
The project requires an approval, to be signed by the Registrar General, which also allows a transcribed signature for an informant during in person registration.
Significant IT development work has been carried out by NRS IT to enable the existing FER Registration System to accept digital transcribed signatures.
A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) has been carried out by NRS to ensure that any risks relating to data storage have been properly addressed. In addition, the appendix to the DPIA also explains how when a registration is still completed on paper with a wet signature, the record of that registration can be scanned in so it can be stored electronically.
Guidance will be supplied to registrars to make them fully aware of the system changes.
The project will be implemented from 6 February 2024 on a phased approach, beginning with Group 1, 8 early adopter councils (Argyll and Bute Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Clackmannanshire Council, East Ayrshire Council, East Dunbartonshire Council, Fife Council, Scottish Borders Council, West Lothian Council).
National Records of Scotland
Date: 31/01/24
REGISTRAR GENERAL APPROVAL - TRANSCRIBED SIGNATURE FOR AN INFORMANT DURING IN PERSON REGISTRATION
- In accordance with sections 14(1C)(b), 16(1)(c)(ii), 18(4)(b), 18B(4)(b), 23(1C)(b) and 25(1)(c)(ii) of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965, the Registrar General for Scotland approves the manner of attestation by the district registrar on behalf of a person of a birth registration form for a birth, a birth registration form for a still-birth and a death registration form which is specified in paragraph (2), in the registration districts specified in paragraph (3), in the circumstance where the district registrar attests the form on behalf of a person in their presence.
- The manner of attestation mentioned in paragraph (1) is that the registrar should ask the person how their usual signature reads. The registrar should then attest on behalf of the person by inserting the usual signature of the person on to the form followed by “(Transcribed)”.
- The registration districts mentioned in paragraph (1) are Argyll and Bute Council, City of Edinburgh Council, Clackmannanshire Council, East Ayrshire Council, East Dunbartonshire Council, Fife Council, Scottish Borders Council, and West Lothian Council.
- This approval has effect from 6 February 2024.
