For England and Wales:
The Senior Master of the Royal Courts of Justice
Strand
London WC2A 2LL
Switchboard: +44 207 947 6000
Tel: +44 207 947 7772 (option 2)
Website: Ministry of Justice
For Scotland:
Scottish Government Justice Directorate
Central Authority & International Law Team
St. Andrew's House (GW15)
Edinburgh EH1 3DG
Scotland, UK
E-mail: serviceofdocuments@gov.scot
Tel.: +44 131 244 2417 or +44 131 244 4829
For Northern Ireland:
The Master (Queen’s Bench and Appeals)
Royal Courts of Justice
Chichester Street
Belfast BT1 3JF
Tel: +44 28 9072 4639
Website: Department of Justice NI
For the overseas territories - with the following declarations:
"(a) In accordance with Article 18 of the Convention the authority shown against the name of each territory in the Annex (hereinafter severally called "the designated authority") is designated as the authority in that territory competent to receive requests for service in accordance with Article 2 of the Convention.
(b) The authority in each territory competent under Article 6 of the Convention to complete the Certificate of Service is the designated authority.
(c) In accordance with the provisions of Article 9 of the Convention, the designated Authority shall receive process sent through consular channels.
(d) With reference to the provisions of paragraphs (b) and (c) of Article 10 of the Convention, documents sent for service through official channels will be accepted in a territory listed in the Annex by the designated authority and only from judicial, consular or diplomatic officers of other Contracting States.
(e) The acceptance by the United Kingdom of the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 15 of the Convention shall equally apply to the territories named in the Annex.
The authorities designated in the Annex will require all documents forwarded to them for service under the provisions of the Convention to be in duplicate and, pursuant to the third paragraph of Article 5 of the Convention, will require the documents to be written in, or translated into, the English language."
Annex:
| Anguilla | The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Anguilla. |
| Antigua 1) | Please click here for the Central Authority of Antigua and Barbuda |
| Bermuda | The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Bermuda. |
| British Honduras (since 21 September 1981: Belize) 2) | -- |
| British Solomon Islands (since 7 July 1978: the Solomon Islands) 2) | -- |
| British Virgin Islands | Registrar of the Supreme Court Supreme Court Registry No. 84 Main Street P.O. Box 418 Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands VG1110 Tel: (284) 468-5001 Fax: (284) 468-4951 |
| Cayman Islands | The Clerk of the Courts 61 Albert Panton Street Grand Cayman Cayman Islands KY1-1601 Telephone: 345 949 4296 E-mail: clerkofcourt@judicial.ky General website: www.judicial.ky Contact person: Shiona Allenger, Clerk of Court Languages spoken by staff: English |
| Central and Southern Line Islands (since 12 July 1979: Kiribati) 2) | -- |
| Falkland Islands and Dependencies | The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Stanley, Falkland Islands. |
| Fiji 2) | -- |
| Gibraltar | The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Gibraltar* |
| Gilbert and Ellice Islands (became respectively Kiribati (12 July 1979) and Tuvalu (1 October 1978)) 2) | -- |
| Guernsey | The Bailiff, Bailiff's Office, Royal Court House, Guernsey, Channel Islands. |
| Isle of Man (as per 15 March 2010) (previous authority: the First Deemster and Clerk of the Rolls) |
The Chief Registrar Isle of Man Courts of Justice Deemsters Walk Douglas ISLE OF MAN IM1 3AR |
| Jersey | The Attorney General, Jersey, Channel Islands. |
| Montserrat | The Registrar of the High Court, Montserrat. |
| Pitcairn | The Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Pitcairn. |
| St.Helena and Dependencies | The Supreme Court, St.Helena. |
| St.Lucia 2) | -- |
| St.Vincent 1) | please click here for the Central Authority of St.-Vincent and the Grenadines |
| Seychelles 3) | please click here for the Central Authority of Seychelles |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | The Registrar of the Supreme Court, Turks and Caicos Islands. |
1) This country achieved independence and declared that it considers itself bound by the Convention.
2) This country achieved independence, but has not declared that it considers itself bound by the Convention.
3) This country achieved independence and acceded to the Convention.
* By Note dated 26 August 1997, the Embassy of Spain at The Hague informed the depositary of the following declaration: "España no reconoce, para la aplicación del presente Convenio, como autoridad al Tribunal Supremo de Gibraltar, y en consecuencia, cualquier documentación intervenida por dicho organo se considerará como nula y no existente."
By Note dated 28 October 1997, the British Embassy at The Hague informed the depositary of the following:
"Her Britannic Majesty's Embassy present their compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as depositary of the Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters done at The Hague on 15 November 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the `Convention'), and have the honour to refer to the Ministry's Note No 5/1997 of 1 September 1997 communicating the recent declaration by Spain to the effect that it does not recognise the Supreme Court of Gibraltar as an authority for the purposes of the Convention.
Under Article 18 of the Convention a Contracting State may designate `other authorities in addition to the Central Authority and shall determine the extent of their competence'. The Registrar of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar was designated as such authority for Gibraltar by the United Kingdom in 1970.
The Kingdom of Spain ratified the Convention in 1987, and has made no previous objection to the United Kingdom's pre-existing designation of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar. In such circumstances, the United Kingdom is of the view that Spain may not object legitimately to this designation now. Thus the Supreme Court of Gibraltar remains the United Kingdom's designated authority for Gibraltar for the purposes of the Convention.
Her Britannic Majesty's Embassy avail themselves of this opportunity to renew to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands the assurances of their highest consideration."
This page was last updated on: