3
I approve 
 
 Kevin Foster 
 Parliamentary Under Secretary of State 
29th April 2021 Home Office 
 
 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
(This note is not part of the Regulations) 
These Regulations provide for records of marriages to be kept in churches and chapels of the 
Church of England and the Church in Wales, other th an chapels to which Part 5 of the Marriage 
Act 1949 applies (naval, military and air force chapels). 
Regulation 2 requires parochial church councils to provide books known as “registers of marriage 
services” to churches and chapels in their parish i n which banns of matrimony may be published, 
for the purposes of keeping the records required by  regulation 3. Regulation 2 also imposes 
requirements relating to the durability and pre-printed content of these registers, and provides that 
they belong to the parochial church council. 
Regulation 3 requires specified information to be recorded in a register of marriage services when 
a marriage has been solemnized on or after 4th May 2021 according to the rites of the Church of 
England or Church in Wales in a church or chapel in  which banns of matrimony may be 
published. The record must be made and signed by th e member of the clergy by whom the 
marriage was solemnized. 
Regulation 4 imposes requirements relating to the keeping of registers of marriage services 
provided under regulation 2. 
A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument because no, or no significant, 
impact on the private, public or voluntary sector is foreseen. 
  
  
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