Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965

18 Births of illegitimate children

(1) In the case of an illegitimate child the registrar shall not register the birth upon information supplied by the father alone, and shall not enter in the register the name and surname of any person as father of the child except on the joint request of the mother and the person acknowledging himself to be the father of the child; and no person shall be treated for the purposes of this subsection as having acknowledged himself as aforesaid unless either—

(a) he attends personally at the registration office together with the mother and signs the register, in the presence of the registrar, together with her ; or

(b) there is produced to the registrar—

(i) a declaration in the prescribed form made by the mother stating that the said person is the father of the child, and

(ii) a statutory declaration made by the said person acknowledging himself to be the father of the child.

(2) In any case where the name and surname of the father of an illegitimate child has not been entered in the register, the Registrar General may record that name and surname by causing an appropriate entry to be made in the Register of Corrections Etc.—

(a) if a decree of paternity has been granted by a competent court; or

(b) if there is produced to him—

(i) a declaration in the prescribed form made by the mother of the child stating that the person mentioned in the following sub-paragraph is the father of the child, and

(ii) a statutory declaration made within twelve months of the birth of the child to the effect that the person making that declaration acknowledges himself to be the father of the child ; or

(c) if, where the mother is dead, he is ordered so to do by the sheriff upon application made to the sheriff within the like period by the person acknowledging himself to be the father of the child.

Where a decree of paternity has been granted by any court the clerk of court shall, where no appeal has been made against such decree, on the expiration of the time within which such an appeal may be made, or where an appeal has been made against such a decree, on the conclusion of any appellate proceedings, notify the import of such decree in the prescribed form to the Registrar General.