Two significant changes to marriages affecting the Church of England and Church in Wales are coming in over the next few months.
Marriage Registration Act
On 4 May, the long-trailed changes to the way Marriages are registered come into force.
The Act provides for the modernisation of marriage registration for the first time since 1837, by introducing a marriage schedule system and registration in an electronic register. The process will move away from the current paper register introducing a more secure system for keeping marriage records, that is also more efficient and simpler to administer and amend, if necessary, in the future.
Impact for clergy:
What won’t change:
- You will still be required to ensure couples meet the requirements to marry in your building.
- You will still be required to ensure couples complete the relevant preliminaries, i.e.: the calling of banns, issue of common or special licence or, where required, the prior attendance of the couple at the relevant register office to give their notices of marriage in the correct timescale.
- You will still be required to conduct pre-marriage checks and confirm that the details contained on the marriage document or marriage schedule are correct before the marriage proceeds.
- The marriage will still be performed by Church of England or Church in Wales rites.
- You will still use registration ink to complete the marriage schedule.
What will change:
- You will be required to create a marriage document or obtain the marriage schedule prior to the date of marriage.
- You will no longer complete the formal register for the marriages you solemnize (There will still be a register kept by you for the records of your church).
- You will no longer issue the legal marriage certificates.
- The completed marriage document or marriage schedule must be returned to the register office for the registration to take place in the electronic marriage register before a certificate can be issued.
- You will no longer need to complete quarterly returns for marriages which take place in your building.
- You will no longer be responsible for corrections in marriage registers. After the changes are introduced, all corrections to marriage entries will be carried out by the registration officers or GRO.
- The electronic register will also allow for the names of parents of the couple (mother / father / parent) to be included in the marriage entry instead of only their fathers’ names as is currently the case.
In the coming weeks clergy will be provided with training materials and instructions for the new procedures. Support materials will include a step by step guide of the new processes and a frequently asked questions document as well as an opportunity to attend a question and answer session with GRO representatives.
Sham Marriage referal scheme
Then on 1 July, changes to the Sham Marriage Referral Scheme come into force.
