What is a statutory declaration?

What a statutory declaration is

A statutory declaration is a written statement of fact, signed in front of someone the law authorises to administer an oath. That person does not check the facts. They confirm who signed, and record the place and the date.

The Statutory Declarations Act 1835 governs it, and section 7 excludes any oath, affirmation or affidavit made in a judicial proceeding, so a declaration is an out of court instrument by design. Every operative section carries the extent marker U.K., so the same statute sits behind a declaration made in Cardiff, Glasgow or Belfast, while the person who takes it, the price and the perjury statute all change.

The schedule wording and the jurat

Section 18 allows any justice of the peace, notary public or other officer authorised to administer an oath to take a declaration voluntarily made in the schedule form, and section 20 requires that form.

I A.B. do solemnly and sincerely declare, that [the facts go here] and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true, and by virtue of the provisions of an Act made and passed in the year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled “An Act” (here insert the title of this Act).

The jurat underneath comes from section 5 of the Commissioners for Oaths Act 1889, which requires the place and the date to be stated truly. That is the “Declared at, on, before me” line. One authorised person is enough, and the two witnesses people remember belong to form LOC020, the deed poll itself.

Who can take a statutory declaration in England and Wales

The administration of oaths is one of the six reserved legal activities under section 12 of the Legal Services Act 2007, in force since 1 January 2010, and Schedule 4 names seven approved regulators whose members hold it.

Who can take it	Approved regulator
Solicitor	The Law Society
Barrister	The General Council of the Bar
Notary public	The Master of the Faculties
Chartered legal executive	The Institute of Legal Executives
Licensed conveyancer	The Council for Licensed Conveyancers
Patent attorney	The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys
Trade mark attorney	The Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys

HM Courts and Tribunals Service guidance adds a commissioner for oaths, an authorised advocate, an authorised litigator, a justice of the peace and a magistrate, and says whoever takes the declaration must add their contact details and the qualification behind it. Taking one is not the same act as certifying a copy of a document, which carries no perjury exposure.

What a statutory declaration costs, £5 to £32

The Commissioners for Oaths (Fees) Order 1993 has been in force since 18 October 1993 and never raised. It fixes £5 for each person making the declaration and £2 for each exhibit or schedule required to be marked, inclusive of VAT.

Where it is taken	Fee	Set by
Solicitor or other authorised person	£5 per declarant, £2 per marked exhibit	Fees Order 1993
Magistrates’ court, England and Wales	£32	Fee 7.2, Magistrates’ Courts Fees Order 2008
Justice of the peace away from court premises	£30 in addition	Fee 1.1, same order
Justice of the peace court, Scotland	No charge	Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
Commissioner for oaths, Northern Ireland	£5 per declarant, £2 per marked exhibit	Fees Order (Northern Ireland) 1993

That scale survives only because article 9 of SI 2009/3250 kept instruments made under section 81A of the Solicitors Act 1974 alive after that section was repealed on 1 January 2010. The magistrates’ court figure was substituted on 13 July 2026 and covers any declaration for which no other fee is specified.

The scale pays for taking the declaration, not for writing it. No fee order sets a drafting charge, and none sets what a firm charges to certify a document either.

Statutory declaration, affidavit and statement of truth

	Statutory declaration	Affidavit	Statement of truth
How it is made	Declared before an authorised person	Sworn or affirmed before one	Signed by the maker alone, no witness
Where it belongs	Outside court proceedings	In proceedings, where required	Court documents and Land Registry evidence
Required words	The schedule to the 1835 Act	The oath or the affirmation	I believe that the facts stated are true
A false one	Criminal offence, 2 years on indictment	Perjury	Contempt of court

Under CPR 32.15 evidence is given by affidavit only where the court, a rule, a practice direction or an enactment requires it. CPR 32.14 makes a false statement of truth a contempt of court.

HM Land Registry adopted statements of truth in November 2008, in place of the statutory declaration that had been the normal method until then. Rule 215A of the Land Registration Rules 2003 asks only for writing, a signature and the belief wording, and forms ST1 to ST5 carry one. A statutory declaration may still be used unless the prescribed form incorporates a statement of truth.

Where the law requires a statutory declaration

Situation	What the declaration says	Authority
Enrolling a deed poll name change	Completed by someone who knows the applicant	Form LOC021
Gender Recognition Certificate	Three versions, for single, married or partnered applicants and for a spouse	HMCTS guidance
Members’ voluntary liquidation	The company can pay its debts in full with interest within 12 months	Section 89, Insolvency Act 1986
Reopening a magistrates’ court case	The accused did not know of the summons until a stated date	Section 14, Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980
Fixed penalty registered as a fine	They were not the person given the notice, or asked for a hearing	Sections 72 and 73, Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988
Redeeming a pawn without the receipt	Stands in for the lost pawn receipt	Section 118, Consumer Credit Act 1974

The declaration of solvency is the most demanding. It has no effect unless it is made within the 5 weeks before the winding up resolution and embodies a statement of assets and liabilities. A copy goes to the registrar of companies within 15 days of the resolution, and late delivery fines the company and every officer in default. A director who makes it without reasonable grounds risks imprisonment or a fine, and Companies House rejects one filed on the wrong version of form LIQ01, updated on 4 March 2024.

The 21 day deadline for reopening a case or a registered fine

Under section 14 of the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1980, a declaration that the accused did not know of the summons or the proceedings until a specified date makes the summons and every step after it void, provided it reaches the designated officer for the court within 21 days of that date. The information stays valid, so the case can be tried again, though not by any of the same justices.

Section 72 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988 runs the same 21 days from the date notice was received that a fixed penalty had been registered as a fine, and section 73 applies the window to a notice fixed to a vehicle. Both extend to England, Wales and Scotland.

The penalty for a false declaration

Knowingly and wilfully making a statement false in a material particular is an offence in the making, whether or not anybody acted on it.

Jurisdiction	Offence	Maximum on indictment
England and Wales	Section 5, Perjury Act 1911	2 years, a fine, or both
Scotland	Section 44(2), Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995	2 years, a fine, or both
Northern Ireland	Article 10, Perjury (Northern Ireland) Order 1979	2 years, a fine, or both

A false statement made on oath in Scotland carries 5 years under section 44(1) of the same Act. The False Oaths (Scotland) Act 1933 was repealed on 28 March 2011.

Where the declaration supports a land registration application, HM Land Registry warns that a dishonest statement intended to make a gain or cause a loss may be fraud under section 1 of the Fraud Act 2006, which carries 10 years on conviction on indictment.

Statutory declarations in Scotland

The 1835 Act runs in Scotland, so the instrument exists there, but almost everything around it differs. A declaration is taken by a notary public or a justice of the peace. Under section 57 of the Solicitors (Scotland) Act 1980 only a solicitor qualified to practise may be admitted as a notary public, by the Court of Session, and the Council of the Law Society of Scotland keeps the register. Most Scottish solicitors are also notaries, which is why a firm on the Glasgow list is the everyday alternative to a justice of the peace.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service states that the signing service is currently free, that appointments go through the local justice of the peace court, and that justices do not supply the forms. The £5 scale is not a Scottish figure, because the 1993 order was made under a section of the Solicitors Act 1974 that extends only to England and Wales.

Changing a name is the commonest reason people look for a declaration, and in Scotland it usually is not one. A person born or adopted in Scotland records the change with National Records of Scotland for £40, plus £10 for each additional family member. The declaration or deed poll route is for someone born outside Scotland.

Statutory declarations in Northern Ireland

Article 78 of the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 gives every solicitor holding a practising certificate the powers of a commissioner for oaths, and article 78(2) bars that solicitor from acting in a proceeding in which he is solicitor to a party or in which he is interested. The equivalent words in the 1889 Act were repealed on 1 January 2010, so that wider bar now sits in Northern Ireland’s own statute.

Schedule 4 paragraph 7 of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002, in force on 1 April 2005, provides that references to justices of the peace in the 1835 Act include lay magistrates, a term the other two jurisdictions do not use.

The same £5 and £2 scale applies, under a separate Northern Irish order of 1993 made under section 116(2) of the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978, a fee-setting power transferred to Northern Ireland on 12 April 2010.

A change of name is recorded with the General Register Office for Northern Ireland on a form signed in front of a justice of the peace, a lay magistrate or a practising solicitor. Justices of the peace and lay magistrates charge nothing to witness it. Recording the change costs £35, £16 for second and further family members applying at the same time, and £15 more for a certificate. Those solicitors answer to the Law Society of Northern Ireland rather than the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is why no firm on the Belfast list carries an SRA number.