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General Register Office

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply. Letter from Karen Dunnell, National Statistician, to Lord Mason of Barnsley, dated 22 March 2007. As Registrar General for England and Wales, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what is the purpose of the General Register Office's digitisation of vital events (DoVE) project; whether it is intended to change the current service of CD-ROM and fiche provision; and, if so, what assessment has been made of the likely impact on customers of libraries and small archives. (HL2642) The DoVE project involves the scanning of259 million civil registration records held by the General Register Office (GRO) and the data-capture of those records in order to create an electronic index of the scanned images. The records date from 1837 and cover all births, deaths, marriages and still births registered in England and Wales since that time. A separate project, Registration Online (RON) is implementing a system enabling much more rapid capture centrally of new registrations. From April 2007 it is therefore intended to withdraw the sale of new CD-ROM and microfiche copies of the GRO index, and the RON index data for new registrations will be made available free of charge at the Family Records Centre in London from July 2007. The DoVE index date will start to be made available online, from early 2008, greatly increasing the number of people who have access to this information. It is expected that the DoVE project will be completedby 2009. Existing customers with CD-ROMs and fiches will continue to be able to use these resources. However, the GRO expects that most libraries and similar organisations will provide the public with access to the new electronic indexes though internet-connected PCs.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

2642; 690 c216-7WA

Session

2006-07

Related items

Deposited Paper HDEP 2007/254
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Deposited papers
House of Lords

Subjects

Digital technology Libraries Internet Registration of births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk