The Registration of Overseas Births and Deaths Regulations 2014

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which come into force on 1 April 2014, set out the process by which the birth or death overseas of a British citizen or British overseas territories citizens in any Commonwealth or foreign country may be registered by a registration officer. A registration officer, defined in regulation 2, means any officer in the service of Her Majesty’s Government who is authorised by the Secretary of State to register these births and deaths. The registration officer may be overseas or in the United Kingdom. Regulation 4 places an obligation on the Secretary of State to maintain registers of births and deaths.

Regulations 5 to 7 set out the procedure for registering births which occurred overseas including the details which must be provided to the registration officer and the requirements that must be satisfied in order for the birth to be registered.

Regulations 8 to 10 set out the procedure for registering deaths which occurred overseas including the details which must be provided to the registration officer and the requirements that must be satisfied in order for the death to be registered.

Regulation 11 obliges copies of all registrations to be sent to the Registrar General for England and Wales, who will forward on relevant registrations to the Registrars General for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Once registrations have been sent to the Registrars General, certified copies of the entries may be obtained, upon payment of a fee, directly from the appropriate Registrar General. Until this time, certified copies are available from the Secretary of State (regulation 16).

Regulation 12 makes provision for entries to be amended or cancelled and regulation 13 enables any registration officer to refer cases to the Secretary of State when there is doubt as to whether the birth or death should be registered to the Secretary of State.

Regulation 14 enables the Secretary of State to waive any conditions set down in these Regulations if appropriate.

Finally the Regulations revoke the existing provisions which govern these registrations.