Death Registration Information Released to Combat ID Fraud

6 October 2008

The Registrars General for England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have released the first batch of weekly death registration information as part of a joint data release scheme aimed at stopping fraudsters from using the identities of dead people. Identity fraud, of which Impersonation of the Deceased (IOD) fraud is a type, costs the UK economy over £1 billion a year.

Under the Police and Justice Act 2006 and the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006, the Registrars General can disclose death registration information to assist in the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of offences.

Timely disclosure of death registration information will assist the police, other law enforcement bodies and public and private sector organisations to deal with offences and identify cases of attempted fraud by criminals using the personal details of the deceased. This will not only help to combat IOD fraud but will also reduce the impact on relatives of the deceased who have to deal with the consequences of the identity of their loved ones being stolen.

The Disclosure of Death Registration Information (DDRI) scheme was launched earlier this year. A number of applications have been received and have gone through a rigorous application and security vetting process. The information is provided under strict licence arrangements which adhere to government security standards, and a compliance regime is in place to ensure that the recipients use it solely for the purposes for which it is supplied.

The first organisations to complete the application process and sign their licences are Tracesmart Ltd, Experian Ltd, Synectics Solutions Ltd, Faraday Tracing Bureau Ltd. They received their first delivery of weekly death registration data on 26 September.

Further details on the scheme are available on the General Register Office website.

Notes to the editor

The three Registrars General have statutory responsibility for the systems in their respective jurisdictions under which births, deaths, adoptions, marriages and civil partnerships are registered. Civil registration has a vital role in securing and protecting basic human rights by providing a name and identity within society, a facility for marriage and civil partnership, evidence of parentage and evidence of entitlement to inheritance.
The three General Register Offices (GROs) are independent of each other, governed by separate legislation and accountable to different parts of government within the United Kingdom. Nonetheless, the GROs have a common purpose, many similar processes and, within each jurisdiction, the local registration service is administered in partnership between each GRO and local government.
Since the introduction of civil registration in the mid 19th century, society has changed dramatically. GROs across the UK are currently engaged in a programme of modernisation to enhance service delivery by investing in modern IT systems and, where necessary, bringing forward changes in legislation.
Legislation confers powers on the Registrars General to supply bulk information contained in any register of deaths to the police and other organisations in a timely manner for use in the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of offences.
Identity fraud is widely recognised as a significant problem that can partly be addressed by wider sharing of information across government and the private sector. In particular, helping to address IOD fraud, a variant of identity fraud, has become an important policy objective.
Criminals can commit IOD fraud by using the obituaries column of a local newspaper, or other means, to identify someone who has recently died and obtaining more information about the deceased to build up an identity. This identity is used to access existing bank, building society or credit accounts or to apply for new financial services in the name of the deceased person.
Every death must be registered within five days or in the case of Scotland eight days. The Registrars General are required to provide an index of all the records they hold. Death registration information is therefore already in the public domain as soon as a death is registered.
While the fraudster is obtaining sufficient information to impersonate the deceased, organisations with which the deceased had financial dealings may be unaware of the death. Sharing death information more widely in a secure manner, shortly after a death is registered, will significantly reduce the opportunity for fraud.
Any organisation is eligible to apply for the information, however organisations need to convince the Registrars General that they will primarily use the information for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of offences. Recipients will be required to undertake a security assessment, sign a binding licence agreement and be subject to a compliance regime to ensure the information is used appropriately.
Recipients of the information will be provided with a weekly electronic file of death information for deaths that have been registered in the previous week. The information will be supplied in line with government security standards. Data will be encrypted and sent via registered post to named individuals within each organisation.
Applicants will pay a £5k fee to process the application which includes the security assessment. There will then be an annual licence fee of £57k for the provision of information. The fee levels are set in line with Her Majesty’s Treasury guidance to allow the Registrars General to recover the cost of supplying the information.
A review of the scheme will be undertaken in early 2009. The review will consider whether to vary the service provided to include historic information on deaths, more bespoke data files and methods of delivery.