National Health Service Act 2006

Registration of information, etc

269 Special notices of births and deaths

(1) The requirements of this section with respect to the notification of births and deaths are in addition to, and not in substitution for, the requirements of any Act relating to the registration of births and deaths.

(2) Each registrar of births and deaths must furnish, to the Primary Care Trust the area of which includes the whole or part of the registrar’s sub-district, such particulars of each birth and death which occurred in the area of the Primary Care Trust as are entered in a register of births or deaths kept for that sub-district.

(3) Regulations may provide as to the manner in which and the times at which particulars must be furnished under subsection (2).

(4) In the case of each child born—

(a) the child’s father, if at the time of the birth he is residing on the premises where the birth takes place, and

(b) any person in attendance upon the mother at the time of, or within six hours after, the birth,

must give notice of the birth to the Primary Care Trust for the area in which the birth takes place.

(5) Subsection (4) applies to any child which is born after the expiry of the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy whether alive or dead.

(6) Notice under subsection (4) must be given either—

(a) by posting within 36 hours after the birth a prepaid letter or postcard addressed to the Primary Care Trust at its offices and containing the required information, or

(b) by delivering within that period at the offices of the Primary Care Trust a written notice containing the required information.

(7) A Primary Care Trust must, upon application to it, supply without charge to any medical practitioner or midwife residing or practising within its area prepaid addressed envelopes together with the forms of notice.

(8) Any person who fails to give notice of a birth in accordance with subsection (4) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale, unless he satisfies the court that he believed, and had reasonable grounds for believing, that notice had been duly given by some other person.

(9) Proceedings in respect of an offence under subsection (8) must not, without the Attorney-General’s written consent, be taken by any person other than a party aggrieved or the Primary Care Trust concerned.

(10) A registrar of births and deaths must, for the purpose of obtaining information concerning births which have occurred in his sub-district, have access at all reasonable times to—

(a) notices of births received by a Primary Care Trust under this section, or

(b) any book in which those notices may be recorded.

270 Provision of information by Registrar General

(1) The Registrar General may provide to the Secretary of State any information to which this section applies.

(2) Any information provided under subsection (1) must be provided in such form as appears to the Registrar General appropriate for the purpose of assisting the Secretary of State in the performance of his functions in relation to the health service.

(3) This section applies to any information—

(a) entered in any register kept under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (c. 20),

(b) entered in the Adopted Children Register maintained by the Registrar General under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 (c. 38), or

(c) which is kept by the Registrar General under any other enactment and relates to any birth or death.

(4) “Enactment” includes an enactment contained in subordinate legislation.