The Society of Registration Officers was a trade union representing officers of the vital registration service in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Members provided the local birth, marriage and death registration service, the majority working in local

Register Office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, ...

s. After decades of campaigning, together with

UNISON In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

, the major public service union, the Society finally succeeded in seeing statutory registration officers receive legal employment status in 2007 when, on 1 December of that year, they became employees of their relevant local authority following the enactment of the

Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 The Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (c 18) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which established the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). It came into force in April 2008. Sir Michael Scholar was appointed as the first Cha ...

. The Society also played a major part in the development of the registration service over many years, working closely with the

General Register Office General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital record ...

and local authorities. Its membership had an exceedingly close and strong attachment to their work and therefore to the service they delivered to the public. With the arrival of the long-awaited employment status for the field registration officers the Society, as a trade union, had no further role to play. The majority of its members were also members of UNISON. On 12 March 2009 a resolution was passed that the Society be dissolved. The Registrar of Trade Unions concurred in January 2010 and the Society of Registration Officers closed for business with the same dignity with which it had vigorously pursued its aims for many decades.

References

{{reflist Defunct trade unions of the United Kingdom 2010 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Public sector trade unions