Commentary on Sections Registration Section 4: Designation of documents for purposes of registration etc.
36.Section 4 provides for the Secretary of State to have the power by order to designate documents for the purposes of the Act, for example, passports. Any orders will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. These documents are referred to in the Act as “designated documents”. Persons responsible for issuing designated documents are referred to in the Act as “designated documents authorities”. If a document is designated, anyone applying for one will simultaneously need to apply to be entered in the Register, unless he is already so registered (see section 5(2)). He would also need to apply for an ID Card unless he already has one. There is, however, an exception to the requirement to apply for an ID Card where the designated document being applied for is a British passport and the application is made before 1st January 2010 (see subsection 6(7)).
37.Subsection (2) provides that the Secretary of State may only designate documents which are issued by the persons set out in subsection (3), namely a Minister of the Crown, a government department, a Northern Ireland department, the National Assembly for Wales, or any other person who carries out statutory functions on behalf of the Crown.