Births, marriages and deaths left unregistered after systems failure

Computer outage, staff shortages and pandemic disruption causing turmoil for families and businesses in England and Wales

The Home Office was accused last night of causing turmoil for families" after a failure in its online system for registering births, deaths and marriages created frustration and anger across England and Wales.

As people reported being unable to register their important life events" - with resulting disruption to their plans to travel, claim benefits and take out savings plans among a range of other knock-on effects - local authorities were warning of further serious delays.