UK births, deaths, marriages records to be digitised

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) has signed a contract with Siemens Business Services (SBS) to digitise 250 million births, deaths and marriages records dating back to 1837.

The three-year Digitisation of Vital Events (DoVE) project will create a central database by scanning, digitising and indexing paper registration certificates for the UK population dating from 1837 to the present day.

SBS will scan 80,000 ONS microfilms containing the ONS' paper archives and send them via an encrypted link to a centre in India to be entered into the database and then returned to the ONS.

It is planned that all certificates will be digitised by 2008 and the UK Passport Service also plans to link up to the database for cross-reference checking of passport applications to help cut down on the submission of forged or fraudulent documents.

... with cost-efficiency so high on the agenda... this project is bound to be seen as a key test case of offshoring around large public sector contracts.

-- Phil Codling, analyst, Ovum Holway

The ONS claims the project will deliver significant efficiencies in the production of certificates, moving from a labour intensive manual process to a streamlined automated process.

Carrie Armitage, DoVE project director at the ONS, said in a statement: "It is essential to create new solutions to save time and money and give better service to the public, particularly as there is a growing number of applications for certificates."

Phil Codling, analyst at Ovum Holway, said the contract is noticeable in that it is the first time a government department or agency has gone public with the fact that using offshore IT services will save taxpayers a considerable amount of money.

"This is not by any means the first time that work for the UK government has gone offshore. What is unusual is the ONS' candour in putting the details of the deal out in the open. All of which means that, with cost-efficiency so high on the agenda across government for the foreseeable future, this project is bound to be seen as a key test case of offshoring around large public sector contracts," he said in a research note.