Police and Justice Bill

If my hon. Friend will permit me, I shall ensure that I have chapter and verse about that before I write to him with a full and thorough answer. Death registration information is in the public domain as soon as a death is registered. Any person can obtain a copy of an entry in a death register in the form of a certificate, provided he or she can identify the entry and pay the statutory fee for the certificate. However, under current statutory provisions, it is available neither quickly enough to those organisations with an interest in preventing and detecting fraud involving the identity of a deceased person nor in a format that would assist them for those purposes. Identity crime is increasing. The UK’s fraud prevention service estimates that there were 70,000 instances of fraud involving the identity of a deceased person in 2004, at a cost to our economy of £300 million. At the current rate of growth, that figure is forecast to reach 100,000 instances a year by 2007. The new clause and consequential amendments will allow us to stem the predicted increase by allowing registrars general in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to supply death registration information to specific organisations as soon as it becomes available to them. They will also be able to supply it in a format that can be used effectively by the police and others to help detect any attempt to use the identity of a deceased person. All the evidence supports the proposition that the most effective use of that information is in the period immediately following a death. Administrative arrangements will be in place to monitor the supply and use of the information. There will also be sanctions for its misuse—for example, the suspension of the supply of information.