Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government has taken to implement the EU proposal to replace the royal coat of arms with the EU emblem on birth, death and marriage certificates; and if he will make a statement.

The Government has taken no such steps to make any change to UK public documents.

The underlying issue stems from a proposed EU regulation (2013/0119) on the use of public documents between EU Member States. The draft can be found at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2013:0228:FIN:EN:PDF

The UK Government has been absolutely clear that there can be no suggestion of national birth, death or marriage certificates being replaced by EU documents, or of UK emblems being replaced by EU branding on them. Further, the European Commission has stated that there is no EU legal basis to impose any such replacement.

Negotiations continue on this draft regulation. Ministers have been clear that the imposition of the EU flag is inappropriate. Indeed, following negotiations initiated by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles), the UK Government last year stopped proposals from the European Commission to make it compulsory for many public bodies to fly the EU flag from their public buildings all year round, and in addition, successfully renegotiated EU law to remove the previous requirement (under 2006 EU regulation) to fly the EU flag for one week a year on Europe Day.