The changes mean there won't be any "new" index entries to release!!

There are a couple changes that affect genealogists:

[1] The existing BMD registers are being digitised, re-indexed and allegedly being put online by the GRO themselves to speed up online ordering and certificate issue. The bad news is the work of indexing and inputting the database has been outsourced to a company in in Chennai (formerly Madras) in India. [echoes of 1901 census!!]. See http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39150967... and http://management.silicon.com/government/0,39024677,39150967... for full story.

There is an implication that the database will be searchable online - “A spokeswoman from the ONS said putting the records online will aid genealogists tracing family histories.” - I assume new entries will be released when appropriate, restrictions already exist on ordering certificates for certain dates.

[2] From 1 April 2008 the GRO “detaches” from the Office of National Statistics [ONS] and becomes part of the Identity & Passport Service [IPS]

[3] The Registration of BMD’s is moving to a fully electronic system that removes the need to send duplicate registers quarterly to the IPS as the transfer is in “real time”, hence no more indexes as such.

This from York City Council’s web site:
Historic changes to registration services. Posted on Friday 23 March 2007.

Historic changes in registration services across the country mean that, from Monday (26 March), all births and deaths will be registered on-line through a completely new web-based system.

This means that there will be no more handwritten registers - they will all be computer generated in future - and no more written certificates for events registered from next week. Eventually paper certificates will be phased out altogether and registration services will start using a national, electronic database for all life events, including marriages, from October 2008.

Although some of the proposals are on hold [telephone and personal registration online]at present, this from Somerset County Council’s Scrutiny Committee 24th Feb 2005 from a paper about proposed changes to Registration Services:

Government Proposals for Change:

6.1 The principles of the Registration Services were established in 1837 and for some years now modernisation has been on the agenda. The proposals from the General Register Office that ere part of the recent Regulatory Reform Order did include the following:

1. A facility for births and deaths to be registered over the telephone or on the internet. This is dependent on a new national registration database and computer system.

2.There would be a new national database creating “through life” records. The use of certificates will decline over time as national bodies will have access to the national computer database to verify birth, marriage, death, and probably divorce and naturalisation records as well.

This means that reliance on traditional certificates will cease. Local authority income from the sale of certificates would drop off and the records [I assume existing local original certificates] would probably go into the County Archive.

3. Replacement of the system of certificates by a system of copy computer entries.

Overall the database and records should be more accessible to all.