It was created by Royal Warrant of Queen Elizabeth II dated 1 June 2004, is maintained by the Crown Office within the United Kingdom's Ministry of Justice, and is published by the College of Arms.
[1] Until that date anyone succeeding to a title in the peerages of England, Scotland, Great Britain or the United Kingdom and proving succession received a writ of summons to Parliament.
The royal warrant of 1 June 2004 had the express aim of remedying this situation as far as possible, stating in the preamble the desirability of a full record of the peerage.
[9] Enrollment is automatically consequent upon creation as a peer and can be applied for by way of proving succession to a peerage to the satisfaction of the Lord Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Justice.
More complex succession, where the relationship is distant, may require specific professional assistance from an officer of arms, a genealogist, a legal practitioner or the Registrar of the Peerage.