When the Law Says “Any Person” – But the System Says “No”

For over 60 years, Fraser & Fraser has worked hand-in-hand with the General Register Office (GRO) to ensure that estates are distributed lawfully and fairly. These records — birth, marriage, and death certificates — are not just bureaucratic paperwork; they are public records at the very heart of justice.

And Parliament made that crystal clear.

Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 – Section 30:

30(1) The Registrar General shall cause indexes of all the certified copies of entries in registers sent to him under this Act to be made and kept in the General Register Office.

In other words, the law says “any person” may obtain a certified copy (i.e. a birth certificate), not just family members, not just lawyers, not just probate researchers — anyone.

Yet, in 2025, access has never been more challenging.

Following the closure of the Account Holder Service in March, Fraser & Fraser — likely the GRO’s largest private customer, placing close to 20,000 certificate orders a year — has found the process slower, costlier, and unnecessarily obstructive.

The cost per certificate is £11 (or higher if priority service is used). Multiply that by tens of thousands of orders and you can see why efficiency matters — not just to us, but to every heir and beneficiary waiting for their inheritance.

We are seeing:

Delays that slow down estate distributions, leaving heirs waiting.

Staff citing GDPR and “data protection” as grounds to refuse lawful orders, despite the fact that these registers are expressly public by statute.

Extra cost and inefficiency — one certificate per envelope, one payment per transaction, more admin for everyone.

If a professional firm like Fraser & Fraser — with dedicated staff and decades of experience — struggles to navigate the system, what chance does an ordinary member of the public have when trying to access a birth or death certificate for a loved one?

We have supported the GRO for decades — contributing to the microfilming of the original registers, attending user group meetings, and working collaboratively to maintain integrity in estate administration. We want to continue that collaboration.

💡 Our call to action: Let’s work together to fix this. Public records must remain publicly accessible — efficiently, fairly, and in a way that honours both the spirit and the letter of the law.

We stand ready to work with the GRO, the Home Office, and other stakeholders to ensure that the process reflects the needs of professionals and the public alike.