GRO Consulatation

Survey on GRO website

With effect from 1 April this year the General Register Office (GRO) ceased to be part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and became part of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). There are now plans to integrate the GRO website into the DirectGov website which acts as a portal for many different Government websites - see www.direct.gov.uk. The FFHS was invited to give its thoughts on this, which it did at the beginning of May, and now a survey has been launched for members of the general public to have their say. The survey can be accessed from the GRO website home page at www.gro.gov.uk.

Concerns have been expressed over the possibility of the GRO website being lost among many other websites and so much more difficult to find. Perhaps the point should be made that entry via DirectGov should be an additional option rather than the only one. If you have strong views on the service provided by the GRO, here is an opportunity to air your views in a constructive manner.

The survey embraces not only the role of the GRO but also passport applications and plans for identity cards. It appears from a quick study of the survey that it is possible to skip those parts which you do not wish to respond to.

The survey will close on 14 June 2008.

e-petitions

If you find LancashireBMD a useful service, you can lobby the UK Government to facilitate more projects of this kind by signing an e-petition. There is no guarantee of action but the more people sign, the more chance your voice will be heard.

Three petitions have been raised. The first of these relates specifically to the indexes to local registers which appear on LancashireBMD. All have now closed

Petition 1 (closed)
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Mandate the electronic indexing and free public searching thereof of locally held records of Birth, Marriage and Death at Register Offices across England and Wales. (Submitted by John Fairlie – Deadline to sign up by: 01 January 2008) - This petition has now closed

Petition 2 (closed)
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow easier and cheaper access to birth marriage and death certificates for family history researchers.  (Submitted by Cavin O'Brien – Deadline to sign up by: 10 April 2008) - This petition has now closed

Petition 3 (closed)
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to reduce the cost of Historical Birth, Marriage & Death Certificates to the actual cost of producing & sending them. More details. (Submitted by Helen Scerri – Deadline to sign up by: 27 August 2007) - This petition has now closed.

Please note that ONLY UK CITIZENS may sign these petitions.