Wedding and birth registrations on hold

CountY Hall is to suspend birth registrations, marriages and civil partnerships until at least the end of this month.

leicestershire County Council says it has made the move to protect the health of staff and customers during lockdown.

officials say wedding and civil partnership notice appointments as well as birth registration will be postponed where possible to reduce face-to-face interactions at its register office in Glenfield.

registrations of deaths will continue to be offered via telephone.

the doctor or hospital will send the death certificate to the leicestershire registration Service, and a member of the team will call the bereaved person to make a telephone appointment and register the death.

the county council says birth registrations will be deferred unless there are exceptional or urgent reasons.

Marriages and civil partnership ceremonies are not allowed unless there are exceptional or urgent circumstances, such as terminal illness. the service will contact those couples whose ceremonies are due to take place after the current lockdown ends to discuss their appointment.

the closures will be reviewed at the beginning of February.

infection rates have been rising across leicestershire in recent weeks as the variant strain of the virus has been spreading, although there are some early indications that the national lockdown measures are beginning to slow that down.