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Archiver > LANCSGEN > 1999-03 > 0920469785


From: Shane and Jayne McHugh <>
Subject: [Fwd: [SOG-NEWS-L] BMD Certificate Changes]
Date: Wed, 03 Mar 1999 09:03:05 -0500


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SOG-NEWS-L] BMD Certificate Changes
Resent-Date: Tue, 2 Mar 1999 23:47:35 -0800 (PST)
Resent-From:
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 1999 09:59:52 +0000
From: Geoffrey <>
To:

- Brighter Look For Death Certificates

The British Office for National Statistics has announced that
birth, death and stillbirth certificates issued in England and
Wales are to have a new background design. The changes will
affect some 4 million certificates issued each year for a wide
variety of purposes, from genealogy to passport applications.

The traditional red tint background for birth certificates and
gray for deaths are both to be replaced by a blue tint with a
central design incorporating the rose and daffodil emblems of
England and Wales. Although there have been minor changes to
certificates in recent years, the new look is the first major
design change since the existing background tints were introduced
about 50 years ago.

Register offices in England and Wales will begin to issue the new
certificates from late spring onwards. For certificates issued
centrally by the Office for National Statistics, the new style
certificates will be used when stocks of the existing design are
exhausted.

The existing certificate design will be phased out with a view to
all birth, death and stillbirth certificates from 1 January 2000
being issued in the new design. Certificates that have been
issued in the current design before 1 January 2000 will remain
valid.

Another design feature will be to standardize the majority of the
certificates, including short birth certificates, to A4 size. The
only exceptions on the full bilingual (English and Welsh)
certificates related to events in Wales. Certificates are printed
by the security arm of the Stationary Office. Organizations such
as government departments, insurance companies and banks that
often need to see birth and death certificates have been informed
of all the changes.

Marriage certificates are not included in this round of design
changes.

The full announcement is available at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/press_release/presslnk.asp?Ptype=link

Geoffrey Stone, SoG Mailing List Administrator.

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