Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953

Miscellaneous

39 Regulations

The Registrar General may, with the approval of the Minister, by statutory instrument make regulations—

(a) prescribing anything which by this Act is required to be prescribed;

(b) providing that any provision of this Act specified in the regulations, being a provision relating to the registration or entry of births, shall cease to apply in relation to still-births or, in the case of a provision expressed by this Act not to apply in relation to stillbirths, shall apply in relation to still-births with such modifications, if any, as may be prescribed:

Provided that paragraph (b) of this section shall not apply in relation to section nine or eleven of this Act.

40 Sending documents by post

Any notice, information, declaration, certificate, requisition, return or other document required by or under this Act may be sent by post.

41 Interpretation

In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say—

• " birth " includes a live-birth and a still-birth ;

• " disposal ", in relation to a dead body, means disposal by burial, cremation or any other means, and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly ;

• " general search " means a search conducted during any number of successive hours not exceeding six, without the object of the search being specified;

• " house " includes a public institution ;

• " live-birth " means the birth of a child born alive ;

• " the Minister " means the Minister of Health ;

• " occupier " in relation to a public institution, includes the governor, keeper, master, matron, superintendent, or other chief resident officer, and, in relation to a house let in separate apartments or lodgings, includes any person residing in the house who is the person under whom the lodgings or separate apartments are immediately held, or his agent;

• " particular search " means a search of the indexes covering a period not exceeding five years for a specified entry;

• " public institution " means a prison, lock-up or hospital, and such other public or charitable institution as may be prescribed;

• " prescribed " means prescribed by regulations made under section thirty-nine of this Act;

• " qualified informant ", in relation to any birth or death, means a person who is by this Act or, in the case of a birth or death occurring before the commencement of this Act, by any enactment repealed by this Act required, or stated to be qualified, to give information concerning that birth or death;

• " registrar " in relation to any birth or death, means the registrar of births and deaths for the sub-district in which the birth or death takes place, or where any living new-born child is found exposed or any dead body is found and no information as to the place of birth or death is available, for the sub-district in which the child or the dead body is found;

• " relative " includes a relative by marriage and, in relation to a person in respect of whom an adoption order has been made under the Adoption of Children Act, 1926. the Adoption of Children (Scotland) Act, 1930, or the Adoption Act, 1950, or under the Adoption of Children Act (Northern Ireland), 1929, or any other Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland for the time being in force, also includes any person who would be a relative if the adopted person were the child of the adopter born in lawful wedlock;

• " still-born child " means a child which has issued forth from its mother after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy and which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother breathe or show any other signs of life, and the expression " still-birth " shall be construed accordingly ;

• " superintendent registrar " in relation to any registrar, means the superintendent registrar of births, deaths and marriages for the district in which that registrar's sub-district is situate.

42 Savings, etc.

(1) Any registration effected, certificate issued, notice or information given, order, regulations or return made or other thing done under any enactment repealed by this Act shall, if in force at the commencement of this Act, continue in force, and have effect as if effected, issued, given, made or done under the corresponding provision of this Act.

(2) Any form used, and any requirement as to the particulars to be entered in any form used, for the purposes of any enactment repealed by this Act in force immediately before the commencement of this Act shall continue in force as though prescribed under this Act until other forms or particulars are so prescribed.

(3) Where a period of time specified in any enactment repealed by this Act is current at the commencement of this Act, this Act shall have effect as if the corresponding provision thereof had been in force when that period began to run.

(4) Any document referring to an enactment repealed by this Act shall unless the contrary intention appears be construed as referring to the corresponding provision of this Act.

(5) Nothing in this Act shall affect any provision of the Population (Statistics) Act, 1938, requiring particulars to be furnished for the purposes of that Act.

(6) Nothing in this Act shall affect the registration of baptisms or burials, or the right of any officiating minister to receive any fees now usually paid for the performance or registration of any baptism or burial.

(7) Nothing in the foregoing provisions of this section shall be taken as prejudicing the operation of section thirty-eight of the Interpretation Act, 1889 (which relates to the effect of repeals).

43 Repeals and consequential amendments

(1) The enactments specified in the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments respectively specified in that Schedule.

(2) The enactments set out in the Second Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in relation thereto in the third column of that Schedule.

(3) The Registration (Births, Still-births, Marriages and Deaths) (Fees) Order, 1952, shall cease to have effect so far as it relates to any fee fixed by any enactment repealed by this Act:

Provided that—

(a) the power of the Minister under section twenty-three of the Local Government Act, 1929, by order to increase, and to vary any increase in, the fees fixed by the Registration Acts shall, in relation to this Act, be construed as a power to make such variations, and such variations only, in the fees fixed by this Act as might have - been made if—

(i) for the fees fixed by this Act there were substituted the corresponding fees in force immediately before the making of the said order of 1952 under the enactments repealed by this Act; and

(ii) the said order of 1952 had not ceased to have effect as provided by this subsection ;

(b) on the coming into operation of this Act, the reference in subsection (2) of the said section twenty-three to the increase effected by an order under that section shall be construed as including a reference to any amount by which the fees fixed by this Act, or those fees as varied by any such order, exceed the corresponding fees aforesaid.

44 Short title, extent and commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1953.

(2) This Act shall not extend to Scotland or to Northern Ireland.

(3) This Act shall come into force on the thirtieth day of September, nineteen hundred and fifty-three.