Births and Deaths Registration (Northern Ireland) Order 1976

Entries in registers as evidence N.I.

41.—(1) An entry of a birth or death in a register shall not be evidence of the birth or death unless the entry—

(a) [F1 includes the name of] a person professing to be the informant and to be such a person as might be required by law at the date of the entry to give to the registrar information concerning the birth or death;

(b) is made in pursuance of Article 10(7) or Article 21(8) or any corresponding statutory provision repealed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 [1967 c.25] or the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration (Northern Ireland) Order 1973 [1973 NI 8] or this Order relating to the registration of a birth by declaration;

(c) relates to a re-registration and is made in pursuance of Article 18, 19 or 31, or any statutory provision repealed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 or this Order corresponding to Article 19;

(d) relates to a death or still-birth and is made upon a certificate issued by a coroner following an inquest;

(e) is made in pursuance of the statutory provisions relating to the registration of births and deaths at sea; or

(f) relates to a birth or death which has occurred outside the United Kingdom.

(2) Where more than three months but not more than twelve months have expired between the date of a birth and the date on which the birth is registered, the entry in a register under this Order or any statutory provision repealed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 or this Order shall not be evidence of the birth unless the entry is made in pursuance of Article 18 or 19 or contains a marginal note that a statutory declaration has been made by a qualified informant, so however that nothing in this paragraph shall apply where the date on which the birth of the child is registered falls on or after 1st October 1973.

(3) Where more than twelve months have expired between the date of a birth or death and the date on which the birth or death is registered, the entry of the birth or death in a register under this Order or any statutory provision repealed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 1967 or this Order shall not be evidence of the birth or death unless the entry purports to have been made with the authority of the Registrar General.

(4) A certified copy issued under Article 34 or 38 shall be deemed to be a true copy of the entry in question notwithstanding that it is made on a form different from that on which the original entry was made if any differences in the column headings under which the particulars appear in the original entry and the copy respectively are differences of form only and not of substance.

F1 Words in art. 41(1)(a) substituted (16.11.2012) by Civil Registration Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (c. 20), ss. 20, 34; S.R. 2012/406, art. 2, Sch.