Affidavit: templates and forms

For anyone in Scotland aged 16 or over who is changing their first name, surname or both — after marriage, divorce or by choice — and needs proof for their bank, employer, HM Passport Office or DVLA. In Scotland no deed poll is needed: a statutory declaration, declared before a notary public or a justice of the peace, records the change, and HM Passport Office accepts one. If you were born or adopted in Scotland, National Records of Scotland can also record the change against your birth record, by post, for a fee; its form is the official route for the register.

For anyone in Scotland asked by a bank, employer, council, DVLA or another organisation to confirm facts by statutory declaration — a lost document, living together, a name used, an address or a family link. You write the facts in numbered paragraphs; the document adds the closing words of the Statutory Declarations Act 1835. In Scotland you declare it in person before a notary public or a justice of the peace — a solicitor only if they are also a notary — and no fee is set by law, so ask the charge first.

For a parent in Scotland changing the name of a child under 16 — after a divorce, in a new family or at the child’s wish. A statutory declaration by a parent with parental responsibilities and rights, declared before a notary public or a justice of the peace: it records the old and new names, whether every other person with parental responsibilities and rights agrees or the court has allowed the change, and that the child’s views were considered. If the child was born in Scotland, National Records of Scotland can also record the change on its own form, by post. From 16 a young person makes their own declaration.

For anyone in Northern Ireland asked by a bank, employer, DVLA, a pension scheme or another organisation to confirm facts by statutory declaration — a lost document, living together, a name used or a family link. You write the facts in numbered paragraphs; the document adds the words the Statutory Declarations Act 1835 requires. You sign it in person before a solicitor, commissioner for oaths, notary public or justice of the peace; a commissioner’s fee is £5, plus £2 for each exhibit (SR 1993/418).

For anyone asked by a bank, employer, council, DVLA or another organisation to confirm facts by statutory declaration — a lost document, living together, a name used, an address or a family link. You write the facts in numbered paragraphs; the document adds the words the Statutory Declarations Act 1835 requires. You sign it in person before a solicitor or commissioner for oaths, for the fee set by law of £5, plus £2 for each exhibit, or before a notary public, who sets their own fee.