3. REGISTRATION DIVISION STRATEGIC AND CORPORATE OBJECTIVES FOR 2007-08
Registration Division’s responsibilities, stemming in the main from the Registrar General’s statutory responsibilities, are as follows:
to administer civil registration of vital events — births and deaths, plus marriages, civil partnerships, divorces and adoptions - and the statutes relating to the formalities of marriage and civil partnership registration and the conduct of civil marriage and civil partnership registration; and
To make available public records about individuals to customers (for example, genealogists).
3.1 Registration Services
Manage and review annually Scotland's registration service, improving standards and availability to meet the expectations of the public and the local authorities who run the local registration service on our behalf.
Target Date |
December 2008 |
|---|---|
Objective |
Complete implementation of the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006 (apart from e-Registration). |
Predicted Outcome |
This will make the registration process easier and more convenient for the people of Scotland, for example by enabling information about life events to be shared more easily and electronically and permitting people throughout the world with a Scottish connection to arrange for a life event abroad to be recorded in a Book of Scottish Connections kept by the Registrar General. |
Target Date |
Pilot birth e-Registration by mid-2008 death registration by 2010 |
|---|---|
Objective |
Develop and implement an e-Registration service as an additional channel alongside registration at local registration offices once necessary safeguards are in place to prevent possible identity fraud. |
Predicted Outcome |
This will increase the choice available to informants, particularly if the informant is based in a remote location or prefers to provide the required information at a time or in a way that is more convenient to them. |
3.2 Family History Service (ScotlandsPeople)
Working with the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and the Court of the Lord Lyon (CLL), make available all the digitised family history records held by the three organisations, in a new centre at the General Register House/New Register House site and over the Internet, and encourage local authorities to establish local family history centres.
Target Date |
March 2008 |
|---|---|
Objective |
Open the ScotlandsPeople Centre to the public |
Predicted Outcome |
Promote the Centre resources. This will give easier access in Edinburgh to genealogical information, and encourage people to visit Scotland to research their family tree. |
Target Date |
On-going |
|---|---|
Objective |
Continue to enhance the family history information on the ScotlandsPeople website and the ScotlandsPeople Centre software and offer licences to other providers to further improve the availability of on-line family history information to customers. |
Predicted Outcome |
This will keep Scotland in the international top class (measured through bench-marking against comparable services) for the information made available on the internet and at the Centre to family historians. |
Target Date |
On-going |
|---|---|
Objective |
Make the ScotlandsPeople Centre information available to local authorities where the local authorities establish collaborative local family history centres. |
Predicted Outcome |
This will extend access to the ScotlandsPeople information and enable local authorities to set the ScotlandsPeople information in the wider context of Scottish social history. In turn, this will provide genealogists with a richer history and may encourage tourism to Scotland to "walk in their ancestors’ footprints". |
Target Date |
On-going |
|---|---|
Objective |
To explore with other organisations and Scottish national collections, opportunities to widen the scope of the ScotlandsPeople project and record set. |
Predicted Outcome |
This will further extend the sources available to family historians and clarify issues such as geography and social history for those who access the ScotlandsPeople information. |
3.3 Cross Cutting
In concert with other Government Departments, improve the scope for increased sharing of data about Scotland's people, in order to assist joined-up delivery of services, combat fraud and improve statistics.
Target Date |
On-going |
|---|---|
Objective |
Play a full part in the consideration of, and preparation for; a population register. Co-operate with the Scottish Administration, UK Government departments and others to improve the efficiency of public services and to reduce the risk of identity fraud, by sharing GROS data in a legal manner. |
Predicted Outcome |
This will help ensure the effectiveness of government and the better delivery of services, whilst preserving the security of personal data. |