Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2021 to question 15183 on General Register Office: Internet, what the evidential basis is for her assessment that the service issue has had no significant impact upon the public when registering life events; and what steps she plans to take in response to the letter from the National Panel for Registration detailing the negative effect on the mental health of registrars as a result of that service service disruption.

The General Register Office has acknowledged following introduction of new functionality in May, there has been performance issues around printing causing some disruption across the local registration service (as outlined in our response to PQ 15183).

However, this has not significantly impacted the public’s ability to register life events as evidenced by the numbers of registrations continuing to take place, helped considerably by some parts of the registration service amending their processes where required.

In response to the letter from the National Panel for Registration, a letter was sent to all Proper Officers in England and Wales on 18 June outlining the plans to stabilise and improve the performance of the registration online system (RON).