I hope this from Gloucestershire's County Archivist may be of use. John Cordwell From: "KINGSLEY, Nick" <nkingsle@gloscc.gov.uk> The registration service White Paper is the product of a very long debate within Government, which has included consultation with a number of archival bodies. It includes a number of measures (such as the proposed transfer of original registration records to local record offices) which the profession widely welcomes. Having said that, the completed document is clearly not as well thought-through as I would have expected, and there are specific concerns about the impact it might have on the research resources of the genealogical community. I am addressing this on a number of levels. In my capacity as Chairman of the National Council on Archives, I sit on the Government's Interdepartmental Committee on Archives. I raised my concerns at the most recent meeting, and have secured a meeting between the relevant Deputy Registrar General and the Association of Chief Archivists in Local Government at which ways round the problems we have identified will be sought. The Public Record Office is also pushing for some changes to the proposals, including a clear commitment to designate the Registrar General's records as Public Records, which would provide a number of safeguards. If the Federation of Family History Societies or other family history bodies have points which they wish to ensure are raised, these can be sent to Jonathan Pepler, the County Archivist of Cheshire <PEPLERJ@cheshire.gov.uk>, who leads on Registration matters for the Association. The National Council on Archives will also be making a formal response to the White Paper, and any views from family history bodies can be copied to me for inclusion in this. Nick Kingsley