The Newsletter of the Family Records Centre (FRC) - Issue 20 Autumn 2002 (7th online edition)

General News From The FRC

Closure Dates in 2002

Wednesday 25 to Saturday 28 December (inclusive)
Wednesday 1 January 2003

Please note that the FRC will close at 5pm on Tuesday 24 December and Tuesday 31 December.

Closure Dates in 2003

Friday 18 April to Monday 21 April (Easter)
Monday 5 May (May Bank Holiday)
Monday 26 May (Spring Bank Holiday)
Monday 25 August (August Bank Holiday)
- Closure dates for Christmas/New Year 2003/2004 have yet to be confirmed.

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc

The FRC now has its own dedicated website. The site was launched in September and has already received many thousands of visitors. The pages feature information about planning your visit (including the dates of all the forthcoming coach party visits) as well as all the latest news and events from the FRC. You can also download copies of the FRC's information leaflets, which will help you to make the most of your valuable research time.

We are planning to expand the FRC website over the next few months to include even more useful information. We want to make the site as interesting and informative as possible and you can help us by letting us know what you would like to see there. If you have any comments or suggestions, you can email the webmaster at:
frcwebmaster@familyrecords.gov.uk

Talks at the FRC

Many thanks to all of you who came along to the talks at the FRC this summer. We were delighted with the attendance and we received some very useful feedback, which will help us to plan for future events at the FRC. We've already got a number of talks pencilled in for next year and if you have any ideas for future topics, we'd love to hear from you.

Open Evening

The next FRC Open Evening will take place on Wednesday 6 November in the Refreshment Area on the lower ground floor from 5:30pm. Refreshments will be available. We hope that you will take this opportunity to come along and discuss all the latest developments in the FRC's services.

Birth, Marriage and Death indexes
- a Health and Safety reminder to all users of the Public Search Room indexes.

The post 1854 indexes have metal spikes in their spines to improve the strength and durability of the volumes. Unfortunately, due to continual usage, the spikes sometimes shift and can overlap the top or bottom edge of the index. This has occasionally caused injury to members of the public. We would urge users to report any index with this problem to staff at the Customer Service Desk immediately. We can then pass the index to our binding section for repair. The index should not be off the Public Search Room shelf for more than half a day.

News From The GRO

Civil Registration Review Update

As we reported earlier this year, the Government's long awaited policy document on civil registration and access to records was published on 22 January. At the time of publication it was announced that the Order-making powers of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 (RRA) would be used to deliver the legislative change necessary to deliver the reforms.

The first stage in the Order-making process is to publish a further, more detailed consultation document. This would set out how the proposals in the White Paper would work in practice and would seek views on a number of issues.

The Policy Team has been working closely with the Cabinet Office's Regulatory Impact Unit (RIU), who oversee and co-ordinate Regulatory Reform Orders (RRO) across Government. Following a recent progress meeting with RIU, it has been decided to publish the consultation document in Summer 2003, rather than later this year as originally planned.

This re-scheduling will allow work on preparing the draft RRO to be taken forward in parallel with the consultation paper, and so ensure no omissions or inconsistencies between the two. Any issues subsequently raised and agreed as part of the consultation process will then be transferred across, and the draft Order updated. RIU's advice is that this approach is particularly desirable for large orders such as ours.

The re-scheduling should have only minimal impact on the Programme as a whole. It is still planned to put the Order before the relevant Parliamentary Committees for scrutiny in 2004.

In addition to this work, we are pleased to report that the Implementation Project for the Review is now up and running. The Project Manager is Gwyn Hughes. The Implementation Team have started work on defining the project scope and looking at transitional arrangements.

Certificate Services Delivery Targets

We are pleased to report that during the second quarter of this financial year (2002/2003) Certificate Services met all of its published turnaround target dates. We also replied to 99.9% of correspondence on time. This includes enquiries by letter, email and facsimile.

During this period we processed 183,663 applications for certificates with 98.7% being produced on time. This compares well to the first quarter of the year when 97% of certificates were produced on time.

QUARTER TWO [July - September]

Certificate Services remains committed to keeping our customers informed of our performance in terms of turnaround times, quality of certificates and standards of customer care.

GRO Customer Survey 2002 Results

As part of its annual customer survey Certificate Services Branch sent out 2000 questionnaires to service users. The results have been compiled from the 876 questionnaires that have been returned. Compared with last year, the results demonstrate an improvement on service delivery.

The following is an extract from the survey. The full results are available on the GRO website at: www.statistics.gov.uk.

How do you normally apply for certificates?
44% by personal visit to the FRC
35% by letter to the General Register Office
16% by telephone to the General Register Office
3% by other methods - such as e-mail
2% by fax to the General Register Office

If you used a form to make your application where did you obtain this form?
65% from the FRC
21% downloaded the form from the GRO website
6% by other methods
4% from a local library
3% from a local Register Office
1% from a family history society

Why did you apply for a certificate?
90% for Family History research purposes
6% for administration or legal purposes
4% for other miscellaneous reasons

How often do you apply for certificates?
35% made an application every few months
20% made an application every month
17% made an application once or twice a year
17% said this was the first application they had made
11% made an application every week

How would you rate the following aspects of the service you received?

Promptness
46% said that the promptness of staff excellent
39% said it was good
13% said it was acceptable
less that 2% said it was poor
less than 1% said it was unacceptable

Politeness
56% said that the politeness of staff was excellent
37% said it was good
7% said it was acceptable
less than 1% said it was poor
less than 1% said it was unacceptable

Helpfulness
51% said that the helpfulness of staff was excellent
39% said it was good
9% said it was acceptable
less than 1% said it was poor
less than 1% said it was unacceptable

Knowledge
44% said that the knowledge of staff was excellent
43% said it was good
12% said it was acceptable
less than 1% said it was poor
less than 1% said it was unacceptable

How would you rate the quality of the certificate(s) you received?
20% said that the certificate quality was excellent
43% said it was good
31% said it was acceptable
less than 6% said it was poor
less than 1% said it was unacceptable

Have you ever made a complaint about the service we provide?
9% of those questioned said they had

When dealing with your complaint do you feel you were treated fairly?
90% of those customers who had made a complaint felt they had been treated fairly

Do you feel the service provided by the Family Records Centre is value for money?
86% of customers said they felt it was

Do you feel the service provided by post, fax or telephone is value for money?
80% of customers said they felt it was

Call Centre Opening Hours

One of the most frequent requests made in the 2002 Customer Survey has been to extend the opening hours of the Certificate Services Call Centre.

In response to these requests, from Monday 18 November, Certificate Services call centre staff will be available to answer your queries at the following times:

Monday to Friday: 8am - 8pm
Saturday: 9am - 4pm

These opening times will be reviewed at the end of March 2003. The phone number remains the same - 0845 603 7788. If you have any comments regarding this initiative please email philip.mccall@ons.gov.uk.

Putting the Record Straight

Errors and omissions in our Indexes are the cause of frustration and annoyance to many of our customers. They primarily relate to the older, hand-written indexes, when perhaps a copying error - or the omission of the entry altogether - has occurred. As you will know, the national records - the copy of each entry sent to the Registrar General since 1837 - is not computerised for these older records, and thus it is not possible to readily cross check indexes against entries. This means that we can only rectify these anomalies after they have been brought to our attention.

Notification of errors and omissions are received from a variety of sources including personal representation at the FRC, telephone calls, e-mails or in writing to the Southport Office.

Our Receipt and Indexing section (R&I), who are responsible for the compilation of the indexes, investigate each case by asking for a copy of the original register entry from the local office concerned. When an error has been made, they arrange for the master copies of the indexes to be updated at Southport and for similar action to be taken by the FRC staff.

Notification of errors and omissions is an important but relatively small part in the requirement to update the Indexes. R&I regularly receive notification of amendments to birth entries brought about by a correction or re-registration of the original entry and a similar procedure to that outlined above is followed.

Consequently the volume of index amendments is quite considerable and there can therefore be some considerable delay from notification of the need to change the detail of the reference to the actual change being implemented.

GRO are conscious of the importance of correcting all inaccuracies. We are currently streamlining the processes involved so that changes to the Indexes can be carried out more speedily.

Historic Records

In the last edition of the Family Record we published an article regarding the number of records held by GRO. Many people have asked for some more detailed information.

From 1837 to 1899 there were approximately 88 million registrations of births, marriages and deaths.

· 47 million births
· 11.5 million marriages
· 29.5 million deaths

The figures below give an idea of the changes in the numbers of birth, marriage and death events over the years (all figures are approximate).

Between 1900 and 1998 there were approximately 158.5 million registrations made up of:

· 71.5 million births
· 33.5 million marriages
· 53.5 million deaths

The FRC holds approximately 7500 index books relating to registrations of births, marriages and deaths. They house around 300 million index entries if you take into consideration that there are 2 entries in the indexes for each marriage.

· Two thirds of the indexes between 1837 and 1856 were written in copperplate on velum
· From 1856 to 1910 the indexes are printed
· From 1910 to 1964 they are typed
· From 1964 they are produced by computer
· From 1984 onwards the indexes are held on computer

At Southport, there are approximately 24,000 microfilm tapes of the entries for records 1837 to 1899.

News From The PRO

PRO News
- the Public Record Office's e-newsletter

The PRO is launching its first ever electronic newsletter. PRO NEWS will be launched in October and will keep you informed of new online services for research and learning; newly available government files; events and new publications, special offers, competitions and much more.

In the first issue, there will be the chance to win £250 of M&S vouchers. For further information, visit the PRO website at www.pro.gov.uk.

WW1 'Burnt Documents' Project

Monday 19 August saw the end of the WO 363 First World War 'Burnt Documents' Project. This was the day the PRO released the last remaining reels of microfilm of soldiers and non-commissioned officers service records. The first batch was released some six years ago.

The PRO is planning some special events to mark the end of the project including an exhibition, to be opened on 9 November, with a case study focusing on the Dickens family, residents of Chiswick and Hammersmith at the turn of the twentieth century.

The next issue of Ancestors magazine will feature an article about the 'Burnt Documents' project with further details about the service records themselves and the full programme of events.

PRO-Online

The collection of PCC wills available online continues to grow and now covers the period from 1810 to 1858 (although the coverage is not yet 100% complete for the whole of this period). If you haven't already done so, why not have a look at the website at: www.pro-online.pro.gov.uk

Further information

If you would like more information about any of the items in this newsletter please telephone
020 8392 5300 or visit our website at:

www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc

To subscribe to the electronic version of the Family Record please send an email to:

FRC-Newsletter@pro.gov.uk

with the word 'Subscribe' in the subject heading.

The Family Record is jointly produced by the General Register Office (GRO) and the Public Record Office (PRO).