FreeBMD Home Page

FreeBMD Home Page very much sponsored by ancestry but created by volunteers who signup
there for whilst you have to pay for Ancestry.com - U.K. Census Collection
overview of U.K. & Ireland Records Collection but this Ancestry.co.uk - England and Wales, Civil Registration Index is a freebie and is the same data but 2 to 4 weeks behind the mother site freebmd

On 1 July 1837 a civil registration system for births, marriages and deaths was introduced in England and Wales. Registration was undertaken by civil registrars who reported to the Registrar General at the General Register Office (GRO) in London, now part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Copies of anyone's birth, marriage or death certificates can be obtained by the public. They are vital to family historians because of the genealogical information that they include."
Mark D. Herber,
Ancestral Trails,
Genealogical Publishing Company, Inc.,
1998

These are public events and therefore not covered by archive privacy law but fears about identity theft are going to restrict full access whne new legislation comes into force.