Membership & Objectives
The members of the Forum are currently-
- the Notaries Society (which represents 878 notaries);
- the Society of Scrivener Notaries (representing those notaries practising in Central London who have taken the additional examinations and other steps necessary to qualify as scrivener notaries);
- the Law Society of Scotland (representing all notaries in Scotland);
- the College of Notaries of Northern Ireland (representing all notaries in Northern Ireland);
- the Faculty of Notaries Public in Ireland (representing all notaries in the Republic of Ireland).
Observer status has been granted to notarial bodies in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Contacts at an inter-professional level with notarial professions in other jurisdictions (both civil and common-law) have grown steadily.
The objectives of the Forum are:-
- to enhance the role and status of notaries within the system of civil justice and in the context of personal and commercial transactions of an international nature;
- to elaborate standards for the worldwide performance of the notarial function and, where necessary, advocate and seek legislative change;
- to provide information, encouragement and assistance to members and other notariats on a mutual and reciprocal basis;
- to represent and advance the interests of the profession of notary (but not individual notaries) with official bodies, such as administrators of justice, law societies, government departments and professional associations whether based in the United Kingdom or overseas.
The members of the Forum have adopted the principle of subsidiarity so that its deliberations and opinions are not directly binding on its members.
At an international level, the Forum has made representations to relevant European Parliamentary Committees concerning the status and authority of notaries in the United Kingdom and submitted memoranda for the consideration of the UINL (Union Internationale du Notariat), the world organisation for civil law notaries.
Schedule B describes the different types of notary in the UK
and the procedure for their appointment.
Schedule C describes the rules and procedures for the training and
qualifications of notaries throughout the UK.
Schedule D identifies the regulatory and professional bodies for
notaries in the UK.