The Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 (Amendment) Regulations 2012

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987 (‘the 1987 Regulations’) and the Registration of Births and Deaths (Welsh Language) Regulations 1987 (‘the Welsh Language Regulations’).

These amendments are considered by the Secretary of State to be appropriate in consequence of certain provisions of the Welfare Reform Act 2009, namely section 56 (registration of births) in so far as it relates to the entries in paragraphs 5 to 9, 12(4), 14 and 20 of Schedule 6. Those provisions make amendments to the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (‘the 1953 Act’) and the Population (Statistics) Act 1938 to:

(a) remove the requirement for a superintendent registrar to take a declaration about a birth and sign the birth register in addition to the registrar doing so where the birth is registered after 3 months have expired from the birth;

(b) remove the requirement for a superintendent registrar to also sign the register in cases where there is a re-registration under section 10A of the 1953 Act (re-registration where parents were neither married nor civil partners);

(c) remove the time limit on still-birth registrations so that still-births may be registered after 3 months from the date of the event;

(d) provide, on registration of births, (including still-births) for the collection of particulars about mothers concerning previous births, marriages and civil partnerships.

Regulations 2 to 8 amend various provisions of the 1987 Regulations to reflect the amendments referred to in (a).

Regulation 9 makes transitional provision in respect of regulation 13 of the 1987 Regulations, which concerns declarations and registrations under section 9 of the 1953 Act.

Regulations 10 and 11 amend various provisions of the 1987 Regulations to reflect the amendments referred to in (b).

Regulation 12 makes transitional provision in respect of regulation 17 of the 1987 Regulations, which concerns re-registrations of birth under section 10A of the 1953 Act.

Regulations 13 to 16 amend various provisions of the 1987 Regulations to reflect the amendments referred to in (c).

Regulation 17 amends regulation 69 of the 1987 Regulations to reflect the amendments referred to in (d).

Regulation 18 amends regulation 4 of the Welsh Language Regulations to reflect the amendments referred to in (a) to (c).