Here's some good news for anyone planning to file for registered design protection in the United Kingdom.  According to an official press release:

From the 30 September 2015 customers will be able to apply to register a single design at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) using an online service. This is in its BETA phase which means you’re looking at the first version of our new service.

We have been working closely with our customers who have told us that the absence of an online service is a barrier to them applying to register their designs. Customers are at the heart of our service development and we have used feedback from them to create this initial beta release and will continue to use their feedback to iterate and improve the service going forward.

This is the first time customers have been able to register a design digitally in the UK through the IPO and offers an alternative to our current paper process.