Registering a new birth and obtaining a Birth Certificate: General information for guidance only.
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In England and Wales a new birth can be registered at any Register Office in England and Wales. However, it is obligatory by law to register a new birth within 42 days of the birth occurring. The doctor or midwife who attended the birth has to give notice to the relevant authorities within 36 hours of the birth. Births in Scotland or Northern Ireland must be registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland respectively.
The following time limits apply for registering births in these countries:-
The advantage of registering in the district where the birth occurred is that a Birth Certificate can be issued at the time of registration. The disadvantage of registering in a different district is that the details have to be submitted to the appropriate district. You will then have to wait several days before you receive the actual Birth Certificate.
More increasingly it is possible to register the birth at the time in the hospital where the mother gave birth. Unless you specify otherwise a short form Birth Certificate will be issued. A short form Birth Certificate shows the date of birth, the district of birth, the babys name and the date of issue. It gives no details of the parents names or the exact place of birth.
There is a variety of reasons to have a Birth Certificate but of importance to most will be applying for child benefit.
Birth registration is usually by appointment only with the Registrar. You will have to ring up or call in to make an appointment. The Registrar will have already been notified of the birth by the local health authorities so it is just a matter of them taking the necessary details and issuing the Birth Certificate. This shouldnt take more than 25 to 35 minutes. Lovely as the event may be the Registrar will not want a full family history. The Registrar will probably want any forms that were issued to the mother at the time of birth.
A bi-lingual Birth Certificate in both Welsh and English can only be issued provided the birth occurred in Wales. Furthermore the registration details have to be presented in Welsh to a Registrar who can understand and write Welsh.
Parents may register a birth together. Alternatively either the mother or the father can register the birth alone provided they were married at the time of the conception or the birth. In cases where this is not so the details of both parents will only be registered on the Birth Certificate if both parents are present at the registration.
If one of the parents cannot be present but wishes to be included they will have to fill in a statutory declaration form which must then be presented to the registrar by the parent making the registration. Should there be an agreement of parental responsibility or a relevant court order then this must be made available to the Registrar by the parent registering the birth.
Parental responsibility for your child means being legally responsible for the life of your child. Joint parental responsibility automatically exists when the parents are married to each other. However, this is not case for parents who are not married to each other.
In cases where the parents are not married it is not obligatory for the mother to name the father.
If the father’s details were not included in the registration, for whatever reason, the parents can apply to re-register at a later date. Re-registering can also be done if it can be demonstrated that a mistake was made. In instances of re-registration both parents must be present. An individual cannot re-register there own birth at a later date for some trivial reason such as wishing to change their name.
There are cases where neither the mother nor the father can attend the registration. In such an instance it is legally acceptable for the birth to be registered by someone with responsibility for the child, someone present at the birth or the occupier of the hospital or even the house in which the birth occurred.
When a birth is registered the mother is permitted to give the child whatever forename (first name) and surname (last name) she wishes. It is the mother’s prerogative to give the child the surname of its father and can do so without the father’s consent. Even if a man is named on the birth certificate as being the child’s father he has no right to specify what names the child is given, neither forename nor indeed surname.
Couples who are married also have the right to bestow whatever surname they desire upon their child. There is no obligation for it to be the surname of either of the parents.
The above rules explain the existence of double barrelled names e.g Smith-Jones. Thus the product of a union between a Smith-Jones and a Jones-Smith could end up with a quadruple barrelled name like Smith-Jones-Jones-Smith.
The rules in Northern Ireland regarding whether the details of a father who is not married to the mother may be entered are different.
Although it is unusual and can cause problems for the individual later on in life it is possible for the birth to be registered without supplying a given or first name.
If you are in any doubt as to the correct procedures when registering a birth or just wish to check what needs to be done in Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland (Eire) then you should contact your local registration office. Once a birth has been registered and a Birth Certificate has been issued it is possible to order a replacement copy Birth Certificate. This is of great use if you have to send a Birth Certificate through the post and do not want to lose the original e.g. for passport applications or other legal purposes.
If you wish to order an official certified replacement copy of a certificate please click on the appropriate link below.
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