Marriage registry changes could lead to £1000 fines, says Church

Under changes which may be law before 2020, couples will no longer be given a marriage certificate at the end of a church wedding.

Instead of being asked to sign a register and certificate, they will instead sign a “marriage schedule”, the Faculty Office said.

The couple then have to take this document to their local register office to record their marriage into a database and only then will they get a certificate, it added.

Failure to do this within a set time will result in the couple being compelled to “attend personally”, the new law says.

Those who do not officially register their marriage will be guilty of a criminal offence and could face a fine of up to £1,000.

The government General Register Office (GRO) has not confirmed the timescale but a Church of England body said it understands couples will have only a week to register their wedding.

Rev Marcus Walker, a London-based Anglican priest, said it was “an astonishing change to the way marriages are recorded”.

“What was supposed to be a fairly sensible proposal – to record the names and professions of mothers – has triggered a seriously big, and probably expensive, shift,” he said.

“Now, instead of marriages being registered then and there by the priest, the couple will get a temporary certificate which they then have to present to the register office within a week of the wedding. When, y’know, they might…