Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of people waiting to change their legal name by deed poll.

Increases in applications to enrol a deed poll with the High Court are linked to a reduction in the application fee applied in January 2015, and also a requirement from many foreign government agencies for proof that a UK deed poll has been formally enrolled.

Many applications are returned because the form has not been completed correctly or the supporting evidence has not been submitted in its entirety. This builds in unnecessary delay and re-work in the system. Officials working with the Judiciary have recently undertaken a piece of work to improve and simplify the application form itself and the guidance that supports it.

A new application and accompanying guidance are expected to be available for use on gov.uk in the coming weeks. It is expected that these changes, which are intended to make the process easier for applicants to follow, will reduce the amount of time taken to process applications. This will also remove delays caused by the need to request additional information or amended applications from applicants.