The Welfare Reform Act 2009 (Commencement No.8) Order 2012

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order brings into force, on 21st May 2012, section 3(1) of the Welfare Reform Act 2009 in so far as it inserts subsection (1A) into section 124 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (SSCBA). Section 124(1A) of the SSCBA requires regulations setting out the prescribed categories of person who are entitled to income support must include lone parents who have a child under the age of five. (Section 124(1A) was amended by section 58 of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 with effect from 20th March 2012 so as to substitute the age of five for the age of seven.)

This Order also brings into force, on 28th May 2012, section 56 (registration of births) of the Welfare Reform Act 2009, in so far as it relates to, and the following entries in, Schedule 6 to that Act—

(a) paragraphs 5 to 7, which contain amendments to the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 (“the 1953 Act”) to 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 more than three months have expired from the date of birth;

(b) paragraph 8, which amends section 7 of the 1953 Act (registration after 12 months from the date of birth) to omit the exclusion for still-births;

(c) paragraph 9, which is a minor consequential amendment to section 8 of the 1953 Act (penalty for improper registration);

(d) paragraph 12(4), which is a minor consequential amendment to section 10A(2) of the 1953 Act (re-registration where parents were neither married nor civil partners);

(e) paragraph 14, which is a minor consequential amendment to section 34(3) of the 1953 Act (entry in register as evidence of birth or death); and

(f) paragraph 20, which amends the Population (Statistics) Act 1938 to provide, on registration of births, for the collection of particulars about mothers concerning previous births, marriages and civil partnerships.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private sector or civil society organisations is foreseen.