Legislation – Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
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Part 4Registers of births and deaths
61Form in which registers of births and deaths are to be kept
(1)
The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 is amended as follows.
(2)
“25Form in which registers are to be kept, etc
(1)
Registers of live-births, still-births and deaths must be kept in such form as the Registrar General may reasonably require.
(2)
The Registrar General may, in particular, require any such register to be kept in a form that secures that any information entered in the register by a registrar—
(a)
in the case of a register of live-births or of deaths, is available to the superintendent registrar and to the Registrar General immediately after the entry has been made, and
(b)
in the case of a register of still-births, is available to the Registrar General immediately after the entry has been made.
(3)
In a case where a register is kept in such form as is mentioned in subsection (2), any information in the register which is available to the superintendent registrar or Registrar General is to be regarded as held by that person (as well as by the registrar) in connection with that person’s functions.
(4)
The Registrar General—
(a)
may provide anything which the Registrar General considers appropriate for the registers mentioned in subsection (1) to be kept in the form required under that subsection, and
(b)
must maintain anything provided under paragraph (a).
(5)
The Registrar General must also provide the forms required for the purposes of this Act for making certified copies of entries in registers.”
(3)
Omit the following provisions—
(a)
section 26 (quarterly returns to be made by registrar to superintendent registrar);
(b)
section 27 (quarterly returns by superintendent registrar to Registrar General);
(c)
section 28 (custody of registers, etc).
62Provision of equipment and facilities by local authorities
“11AProvision of equipment and facilities by local authorities
(1)
At each register office provided for the superintendent registrar of a district, the council which employs the superintendent registrar shall, subject to the provisions of the local scheme, provide and maintain such equipment or facilities as the Registrar General reasonably considers to be necessary for the performance of the superintendent registrar’s functions.
(2)
At each office and each station for a sub-district of a registrar, the council which employs the registrar shall, subject to the provisions of the local scheme, provide and maintain such equipment or facilities as the Registrar General reasonably considers to be necessary for the performance of the registrar’s functions.”
63Requirements to sign register
(1)
The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 is amended as follows.
(2)
“38BRequirements to sign register
(1)
Where any register of births or register of deaths is required to be kept under this Act otherwise than in hard copy form, the Minister may by regulations provide that—
(a)
a person’s duty under this Act to sign the register at any time is to have effect as a duty to comply with specified requirements at that time, and
(b)
a person who complies with those requirements is to be treated for the purposes of this Act as having signed the register at that time and, in the case of a duty to sign the register in the presence of the registrar, to have done so in the presence of the registrar,
and accordingly, in such a case, the entry in the register is to be taken for the purposes of this Act to have been signed by the person.
(2)
The provision that may be made by regulations under this section includes, among other things—
(a)
provision requiring a person to sign something other than the register;
(b)
provision requiring a person to provide specified evidence of identity in such form and manner as may be specified.
(3)
In this section “specified” means specified in regulations under this section.”
(3)
“(6)
A statutory instrument that contains (whether alone or with other provision) regulations made by the Minister under section 38B may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.”
64Treatment of existing registers and records
(1)
The repeal of section 28 of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 by section 61 above does not affect—
(a)
the requirement under section 28(2) of that Act for every superintendent registrar (“S”) to keep with the records of S’s office any registers of live-births or of deaths which are in S’s custody immediately before the coming into force of that repeal, or
(b)
the requirement under section 28(4) of that Act for the Registrar General to keep in the General Register Office—
(i)
any certified copies or information sent or provided under section 27 of that Act (quarterly returns by superintendent registrar to Registrar General), or
(ii)
any registers of still-births that were forwarded to the Registrar General before the coming into force of that repeal.
(2)
Any register of live-births or of deaths which, immediately before the coming into force of this section, is in the custody of a registrar and is unfilled is, as soon as is reasonably practicable after the coming into force of this section, to be delivered to the superintendent registrar (“S”) to be kept by S with the records of S’s office.
(3)
Any register of still-births which, immediately before the coming into force of this section, is in the custody of a registrar and is unfilled is, as soon as is reasonably practicable after the coming into force of this section, to be forwarded to the Registrar General to be kept in the General Register Office in such order and manner as the Registrar General thinks fit.
(4)
The Registrar General may dispose of—
(a)
any certified copies held by the Registrar General of entries in any register of still-births forwarded to the Registrar General under section 28(3) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 or subsection (3) above, or
(b)
any information contained in those entries which is held by the Registrar General in electronic form by virtue of section 27 of that Act.
(5)
Where, at any time during the period mentioned in subsection (6), a copy has been kept otherwise than in hard copy form of any register of births or register of deaths kept for a sub-district under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953—
(a)
that copy is to be treated, on and after the day on which section 61 of this Act comes into force, as the register kept for the sub-district for the purposes of that Act,
(b)
on and after that day, the register is to be treated for the purposes of section 25(3) of that Act as having been kept in the form in which the copy was kept,
(c)
where before that day a person signed any entry in the register, the entry is to continue, on and after that day, to be regarded for the purposes of that Act as having been signed by the person, and
(d)
the Registrar General may dispose of—
(i)
any certified copies held by the Registrar General of entries in the register, or
(ii)
any information contained in those entries which is held by the Registrar General in electronic form by virtue of section 27 of that Act.
(6)
The period referred to in subsection (5) is the period—
(a)
beginning with 1 July 2009, and
(b)
ending immediately before the day on which section 61 comes into force.
(7)
Expressions used in this section and in the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 have the same meaning in this section as in that Act.
65Minor and consequential amendments
Schedule 3 contains minor and consequential amendments.