National Record of Achievement - just a Southern thing?

Am sending certificates in for a new job (hooray!) and yes I’m still keeping them all in my National Record of Achievement binder which I appear to have gained in 1991…

Speaking to my partner from Yorkshire, this appears not to have been a thing for him (I’m from London). Were these not National then? Anyone else still have/use theirs?

(And does everyone else find that the ink has bled onto the plastic pockets..?)