Foreign Office to close rapid certification service

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The Foreign Office has been accused of damaging the competitiveness of the City of London by closing its premium document certification service in Britain’s capital.

The UK government is pressing ahead with plans to shut its same-day legalisation office on December 29, which critics warn will impose costs and delays on international deals closed in London.

Lawyers and notaries have raised concerns that the move could lead to a loss of business to other jurisdictions.

The Foreign Office operates a legalisation service that endorses documents with an apostille, a government-issued certificate that means the papers will be recognised by other countries.

The apostille scheme, based on a 1961 convention to which 126 states are signatories, aims to simplify the recognition of authenticated public documents between jurisdictions.

From next month, City firms will be forced to rely on a Foreign Office service based in a business park several miles outside Milton Keynes to provide the crucial certification for papers involved in international transactions.

Law firms and notaries have warned that having to send time-critical documents to Milton Keynes by post or courier will introduce added expense and could hold up big deals, as they urge the government to reverse its decision to close the premium London service.

Julian Gibbons, president of the Notaries Society of England and Wales, said the move was likely to have a large impact on international commercial transactions taking place in the City.

Notaries in the City who “deal with inevitably urgent, cross-border transactions of various sorts” were “concerned” it would result in more deals being transacted abroad in future, he said.

Gibbons said that about 550,000 apostilles are issued each year, according to Foreign Office estimates, of which about a quarter are issued by its rapid London-based service.

Gibbons said government officials had hinted that they struggled with recruitment at the London-based service and that this had influenced the decision to close it.

Sam Harding, a partner at shipping law firm Hannaford Turner LLP, said it was “unusual” to withdraw a same-day service that was paid for at a premium rate and used frequently by legal practitioners and notaries in the City.

“We often rely on the same-day service when completing a shipping transaction, such as a ship purchase or financing. It gives comfort to our clients that we can control this process from the UK, particularly on deals with an international element.

“From next month we may have to look to other jurisdictions to complete the apostille process, which might entail engaging overseas counsel at extra cost.”

Harding said it was “less than ideal” to have to explain to clients, who “see the City as an efficient place to do business”, that they and their lawyers might “have to go somewhere else” for a same-day apostille.

Government officials insisted the Foreign Office had weighed up the risks of closing the London service following an assessment of current work streams in each service.

They also pointed out that the government had sent a survey to the users of its premium service in August, which included questions about the operational impact if the service was no longer available.

However, London-based notary firms told the Financial Times that this survey was not clearly badged as a government consultation on closing the service.

“It wasn’t properly flagged. The survey looked like one of these government box-ticking exercises, so we ignored it. Then they turned around with no warning whatsoever,” said a partner at a leading City firm of notaries, who asked not to be named.

While the UK government insists City firms can in many instances use the e-apostille service it introduced last year, the senior notary pointed out that digital document authentication is not acceptable in many jurisdictions, including Germany, where a “wet ink” signature is required.

A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson said: “The changes to the FCDO’s Legalisation Services premium service will enable the delivery of an improved and more efficient service for all our customers.”