Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Special Provisions) Act 1957

5 Registration of births of legitimated persons in the service departments registers

(1) Where in the case of—

(a) a person whose birth is recorded in the Service Departments Registers, or

(b) a person born outside the United Kingdom whose father at the time of the birth was a member of Her Majesty's naval, military or air forces or a person of a description falling within paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section one of this Act,

evidence is produced to the appropriate Registrar General which appears to him to be satisfactory that that person was, whether before or after the commencement of this Act, legitimated by the subsequent marriage of his parents, the said Registrar General may authorise at any time the re-registration or, as the case may be, the registration of that person's birth, and the re-registration or registration shall be effected in such manner and at such place as may be provided by an Order in Council under this Act:

Provided that, except where—

(i) the paternity of the legitimated person has been established by an affiliation order or otherwise by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, or

(ii) a declaration of the legitimacy of the legitimated person has been made by a court of competent jurisdiction in the United Kingdom,

the said Registrar General shall not authorise re-registration or registration unless information with a view to obtaining it is furnished by both parents.

(2) In this section " the appropriate Registrar General" means, in relation to a person whose father was at the time of the marriage domiciled in Scotland, the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Scotland, in relation to a person whose father was at the time of the marriage domiciled in Northern Ireland, the Registrar General for Northern Ireland, and in any other case the Registrar General for England and Wales.