Citation, commencement, extent and interpretation

1. —(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Marriage (Keeping of Records in Churches and Chapels) Regulations 2021.

(2) These Regulations come into force on 4th May 2021.

(3) These Regulations extend to England and Wales.

(4) In these Regulations, “chapel” does not include a chapel to which Part 5 of the Marriage Act 1949(marriages in naval, military and air force chapels) applies( 2 ).

Duty of parochial church councils to provide registers of marriage services

2. —(1) The parochial church council of a parish must provide books for the purpose of making records under regulation 3 to each church and chapel of the Church of England( 3 ) in that parish in which banns of matrimony may be published.

(2) Books provided under paragraph (1) are to be known as “registers of marriage services”.

(3) A register of marriage services provided under paragraph (1) must meet the requirements of paragraphs (4) and (5).

(4) The register must be made of durable material.

(5) For the purposes of enabling a record to be made in the register under regulation 3 in respect of a marriage, the register must be printed in such a way that it—

(a) indicates the descriptions of information required by each of sub-paragraphs (a) to (h) of regulation 3(2) in relation to the marriage, and

(b) provides corresponding spaces for recording information required by each of those sub-paragraphs in relation to the marriage.

(6) A register of marriage services provided under paragraph (1) by a parochial church council belongs to that parochial church council.

Duty to record information about marriages solemnized according to the rites of the Church of England or Church in Wales

3. —(1) Paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) apply where a marriage has been solemnized according to the rites of the Church of England in a church or chapel in which banns of matrimony may be published.

(2) As soon as practicable after the marriage has been solemnized, the clergyman by whom the marriage was solemnized must make a record of the following information in relation to that marriage in a register of marriage services provided to the church or chapel under regulation 2(1)—

(a) the date and place of the marriage;

(b) the name and surname of each party;

(c) the date of birth of each party;

(d) the occupation (if any) of each party;

(e) the address of each party at the time of the marriage;

(f) the names and surnames of each party’s parents, so far as those names and surnames are known to the clergyman who solemnized the marriage;

(g) the name and surname of each of the witnesses in whose presence the marriage was solemnized;

(h) the name and surname of the clergyman by whom the marriage was solemnized.

(3) The clergyman must record the information required by paragraph (2) in English, and may also record information required by that paragraph in Welsh where the church or chapel is situated in Wales.

(4) After making a record under paragraph (2) the clergyman must sign it.

(5) This regulation does not apply in relation to a marriage solemnized before 4th May 2021.

Requirements about the keeping of registers of marriage services

4. —(1) The rector, vicar or curate in charge of a church or chapel to which a register of marriage services has been provided under regulation 2(1) must—

(a) ensure that the register is kept in that church or chapel, and

(b) do everything that is reasonably practicable to ensure that the register is protected against theft, loss or damage.

(2) Where there is no rector, vicar or curate in charge of a church or chapel to which a register of marriage services has been provided under regulation 2(1), the obligations under paragraph (1) in respect of that register fall on the churchwardens of the parish in which the church or chapel is situated.