I was involved in some of the consultation meetings with GRO at various stages of the trials - at the time the promise was that the responses would be analysed and they would then look at the options for permanent changes to the delivery systems offered.... the impression was that it would be a fairly quick process but that is a relative term in the world of government. I would hope to see something happen during the summer/early autumn.
My own hunch is that the pdf option will come back more or less as it was in the trials but will be accompanied by a small increase in the cost of paper copies (which hasn't changed for quite a few years now).....
We shall see ....
You could be right but as the GRO are forbidden to make a profit but simply cover their cost any change in price should be downward.
The reason for that is with the exception of marriages most BMDs have been digitised i.e.
Births: 1837-1934 and 2007 onwards
Deaths: 1837-1957 and 2007 onwards
Civil partnerships: 2005 onwards
Marriages: 2011 onwards
This digitisation allows fast location and printing of the relevant entries, thereby reducing manpower.
There is a gap between the digitised records and the records produced originally in digital format i.e. births between 1934 and 2007 and deaths between 1957 and 2007.
This gap period would require the same manpower as previously to produce certificates.
I would envisage that due to the above there would be no additional overheads and therefore the price could remain static.
The most sensible thing would be to licence historic registers to third party providers who could host them online in a similar way to census and the 1939 National Register at a fraction of the cost of the GRO system thereby reducing the burden on the GRO
Cheers
Guy
