Will organisations accept a photocopy or a PDF of my deed poll?

Who wants the original?#

Two organisations, and neither will take a copy of your deed.

HM Passport Office. Its guidance to staff says evidence of a change of name must be an original document or a replacement document. The only copies it lists as acceptable are a certified copy issued by the General Register Office and a photocopy sent in by its own Local Services team, where the officer confirms it is a true likeness of the original. A copy of your deed poll, however carefully certified, is neither. GOV.UK says supporting documents come back separately from the new passport, free by second class post, or by secure delivery for what is usually an extra £5, chosen when you apply.

DVLA. GOV.UK tells you to send the original documents that confirm your new name and not to send photocopies. For identity documents, DVLA's own page goes further: certified copies cannot be used, not even ones certified by the Post Office. The same page says identity documents come back separately from the licence, by second class post, and suggests enclosing your own stamped, addressed Special Delivery or Signed For envelope if you want to track them on the way back.

If the original is lost, a copy of it will satisfy neither. I have lost my deed poll explains the replacement route.

Who takes a certified copy?#

Most organisations that keep what they are sent. The banks publish their rules, and three show the pattern:

• Barclays asks for certified copies if you change your name by post, and its change of name form asks you not to send originals, because it cannot guarantee to return them.
• Nationwide wants a certified copy with its postal form, and says it cannot accept original documents in the post or send originals back.
• Lloyds takes originals or certified copies, recommends sending them by recorded delivery, and returns originals once the change is made. Certified copies come back only if you ask.

HM Land Registry goes further. GOV.UK's page on updating the register allows original or certified copies, but HM Land Registry's own guidance on completing form AP1 says it needs only certified copies and destroys what it is sent once it has scanned it, originals included, unless they are what it calls cherished documents, such as birth and marriage certificates and passports. A deed poll is not on that list, so send a certified copy.

Who can certify a copy explains who may sign one and what they write on it. Ours are £6 for 2 up to £25 for 20, ordered with the deed and posted in the same envelope.

Who accepts a scan, a photo or an upload?#

More than you might expect, but only where they say so:

• NatWest asks you to complete an eForm in its app and then email an image of your supporting document. It says the name is updated in two to four working days, and its list of documents includes an unenrolled deed poll.
• Monzo says it needs to see ID, which can be a deed poll, and to chat to it in the app once you have it ready.
• Nest, a workplace pension scheme, says uploading evidence through your online account or Nest mailbox is quicker than post.
• The NMC, GMC and HCPC, the nursing, medical and health and care regulators, take your evidence as an upload to your online account or, for the GMC, attached to an email with its change of name form: see the NMC, GMC and HCPC guides.
• Phone companies: Vodafone's online form asks for a clear photo or scanned copy of your deed poll, O2 takes an upload in My O2, and EE a scan or photo by email (energy, water, phone and broadband).
• Some councils, for council tax: Cardiff's online form takes photos or screenshots of your documents, and Leeds asks for a copy of a deed poll and says not to post originals (council tax).
• HMRC lets you tell it your new name online or in the HMRC app, and GOV.UK's page on doing so mentions no document to send. If HMRC later writes asking you to confirm your details, its form takes an uploaded image or PDF, which must be of the original document or of a certified copy.

HMRC's condition is a good rule of thumb: an image of a plain photocopy is still a plain photocopy. Many organisations publish nothing either way. GOV.UK's Universal Credit guidance, for example, says to report changes by signing in to your account, but not what evidence of a new name it wants. Ask before you send anything.

Why do many organisations turn down a plain photocopy?#

Because it proves only that a sheet of paper went through a copier. It cannot show that a signed, witnessed original exists, or that nothing was changed before it was copied. Certification supplies the missing part: GOV.UK describes a professional person checking the copy against the original and signing and dating it as a true copy, so the organisation relies on a named person who saw the real document.

A PDF can be either thing. A deed poll printed from a PDF and then signed in ink in front of your witnesses is the original, because the signing is what makes it a deed. A PDF or scan of that signed deed is a copy. Can a deed poll be signed digitally? explains why the signatures themselves cannot be electronic.

How do I send it safely?#

• Post the original only where it is asked for, to one organisation at a time, and let certified copies go everywhere else.
• Pay for tracking. Lloyds recommends recorded delivery for the documents it needs to see, and you can arrange a tracked return from HM Passport Office and DVLA, as above.
• Keep a note of what you sent, to whom, on what date, and the tracking reference. Nest, for one, says it returns original evidence in the same manner you sent it.
• Keep a scan of the signed deed at home. It is no substitute for the original, but it records exactly what the deed says if the paper goes astray.