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Grant Bavister
Assistant Registrar of the Peerage
& Baronetage
Crown Office
House Of Lords
London SW1A 0PW
Tel: 020-7219 2632
Fax: 020-7219 2957
grant.bavister@dca.gsi.gov.uk
The
Viscount Torrington and
The Lord Newall
Joint Chairmen
Hereditary
Peerage Association
1 Fairchild House
Charlwood Street
London SW1V 2LB
17th January 2007.
Dear Lord Torrington & Lord Newall,
I write further to my letter/email of the 9th February 2006 to update you on the current position with regard to the Roll of the Peerage.
As you know, the post of Registrar has been vacant since the departure of Andrew McDonald in 2005. I am pleased to be able to inform you that on the 1st November the Lord Chancellor confirmed Andrew’s successor as my colleague Ian Denyer MVO, who has hitherto been the acting Registrar. Ian who is also Head of the Crown Office has considerable and longstanding experience of the law, practice and procedure in relation to Peerages. I continue as the Assistant Registrar. Our contact details have not changed since my earlier email, but for the sake of clarity we may be contacted at:
Crown Office,
Rm. C2/13,
House of Lords,
LONDON, SW1A 0PW.
Ian Denyer: 020 7219 4687; email: ian.denyer@dca.gsi.gov.uk
Grant Bavister: 020 7219 2632; email: grant.bavister@dca.gsi.gov.uk
I am also pleased to report that work on compiling the Roll of the Peerage has been concluded. I admit that it has been long in gestation, but it was necessary to lift the information from entirely paper-based records at the Crown Office and then cross check them for accuracy. It is intended that it will be the definitive record or register of all those Hereditary and Life Peers, who are still living and who have either received a Writ of Summons or otherwise proved succession pre and post the House of Lords Act 1999. It is also hoped to publish the Roll of the Peerage on the DCA website: www.dca.gov.uk subject to our IT department’s approval. The Roll will consist of columns setting out: class/dignity, country of creation, the title and the name of the current holder of the Peerage.
In addition the Clerk of the Parliaments maintains a Roll of Peers who wish to be eligible to elected at Lords’ by-elections. If a Peer, upon succeeding wishes to be so eligible then he or she should still contact Ian or myself.
Whilst writing, as some of your members will also be holders of a Baronetcy, you may be interested to know that Ian Denyer and I also took over the registrarship of the Official Roll of the Baronetage with effect from 1st November 2006. That Roll is periodically published by the Standing Council of the Baronetage in book form and due to the voluminous nature of the records and the scarcity of resources, I do not anticipate that an electronic version of this Roll will be available in even the medium term.
Any Peer or Baronet may contact Ian or I to check whether his or her name is on either Roll and we will be pleased to assist them and provide guidance if they are not on the Roll, but wish to take the necessary steps to prove succession.
I hope the above is of interest to you and your members and as with my previous letter, if you wish to publish it on your website, feel free to do so.
Yours sincerely,
G. A. Bavister