The Registrar General's Department (RGD) is an Executive Agency and Jamaica’s sole repository of birth, death, marriage and fetal death records. The RGD is the only organisation in Jamaica which is responsible for registering vital events- births, fetal deaths, marriages and deaths and for carrying out the following activities:

 

 

In addition the Agency engages in outreaches both home and abroad. Its mobile team visits areas in Jamaica where citizens may find it difficult to come to any of the nine offices. The Mobile Customer Service is aimed at taking the RGD’s services to persons who are unable to visit the head office in Twickenham Park or any of the nine regional offices. Customers can apply for birth, death and marriage certificates and receive guidance with record updating services such as late registration, late entry of name, addition of father’s particulars (status), correction of error and re-registration. Also in keeping with the Government’s efforts to eradicate poverty, the Agency offers wards of state. Indigent persons living below the poverty line may access a free copy of their birth certificate in our Pro-poor programme. The Agency also continues to assist persons depending on their situations who write us requesting waivers. The RGD is responsible for the over eighteen hundred marriage officers and civil registrars across the island as well as all Local District Registrars. The Registrar General’s Department has maintained an intrinsic focus on developing a customer service oriented environment, decentralization of services and team service innovations with technology, for improved efficiency. The agency has also remained committed to achieving its mission critical role of producing accurate and timely vital statistics to support national planning. As at the year 2000 the RGD had over 4 million records on its electronic database.The RGD’s success in performance is measured against a set of targets called “Key Performance Indicators” (KPI’s) which are divided into output indicators, change indicators and financial indicators. These are designed to measure productivity, efficiency, economy and effectiveness. Targets for the agency were developed based on actual performance in previous years and research of the market from the modernization plan.