Most people need an unenrolled deed poll, not an enrolled one. An unenrolled deed poll is the ordinary kind: you sign it in front of two witnesses and it is legal straight away. The Passport Office and the DVLA accept it, and so do HMRC, the NHS and most banks and employers.
Enrolling is optional. It puts your change of name on public record at the High Court and publishes it, with your address, in The Gazette. That makes it useful for a few people and a bad idea for some others.
What is an unenrolled deed poll?
It is a deed poll you make and sign yourself, without sending it to any court. GOV.UK calls it exactly that: anyone aged 16 or over can make one and start using their new name. Once you and your two witnesses have signed, it is legally effective. Nothing is registered and there is no public record, so the document stays private between you and the organisations you show it to.
This is the type of deed poll this site makes, and it is what the large majority of UK name changes use.
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Will the Passport Office, DVLA and banks accept an unenrolled deed poll?
The Passport Office will. Its caseworker guidance lists enrolled deed polls, unenrolled deed polls and change of name deeds as acceptable evidence. It may also ask for proof that you are using your new name, such as a payslip or bank letter, whichever kind of deed poll you have.
The DVLA accepts a deed poll with form D1, and does not ask for it to be enrolled. HMRC, the NHS, employers and councils accept unenrolled deed polls as a matter of course.
Banks are the one area to check first. Most accept an unenrolled deed poll, but GOV.UK itself warns that some banks, mobile phone companies and energy providers will only accept an enrolled one. If you bank somewhere that does, ask them to confirm it in writing before you pay for enrolment, because front-line staff do sometimes get this wrong.
What is an enrolled deed poll?
An enrolled deed poll is recorded by the High Court under the Enrolment of Deeds (Change of Name) Regulations 1994. You apply to the Deed Poll Office at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, and once it is enrolled your old name, new name and address are published in The Gazette, the official public record.
Enrolment does not make a deed poll more legally valid. Both kinds have the same legal effect. Enrolment only adds the public record.
How to enrol a deed poll, and what it costs
You do not need a solicitor to enrol, and you do not send in a deed poll you already have. Instead you fill in the court's own forms:
- Form LOC020, which is the deed poll itself. You sign it in front of two witnesses.
- Form LOC021, a statutory declaration, and form LOC027, an exhibit cover sheet. Both must be signed in front of a solicitor or another authorised witness, who will usually charge a small fee.
You send them with a copy of your birth certificate, passport or certificate of naturalisation, and the court fee of £53.05. GOV.UK warns that enrolment can take several months. You have to be 18 or over to enrol as an adult; children's deed polls have a separate process with the consent of everyone with parental responsibility.
Who benefits from enrolling?
A fairly small group. Enrolment can help if your bank or another provider genuinely will not accept anything else. It can also help if you expect to need proof of the change decades from now (for inheritance, say), since a court record is easier to trace than an old paper document. Some people born outside the UK find that overseas authorities want evidence the change is on public record.
Who should not enrol?
Anyone who needs their old name kept private. Enrolment publishes both names and your address, permanently, where anyone can search for them.
That rules it out for most people changing their name to get away from harassment or abuse, where linking the two names publicly defeats the point. Many trans and non-binary people avoid it for the same reason. An unenrolled deed poll is accepted for a passport and for a Gender Recognition Certificate application, so there is rarely anything to gain.
So which do you need?
If none of the situations above applies to you, an unenrolled deed poll does everything you need, costs less and stays private. You can still enrol later if a particular organisation insists, since there is no deadline for it.