(This note is not part of the Order)
The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Special Provisions) Act 1957 (“the 1957 Act”) empowers Her Majesty, by Order in Council, to provide for the keeping of records of births and deaths occurring and marriages and civil partnerships entered into outside the United Kingdom among members of Her Majesty’s armed forces, associated civilians and their respective families. The Service Departments Registers Order 1959 (“the 1959 Order”) sets out the relevant provisions. Article 3 of the 1959 Order concerns persons who may give information to a registering officer in relation to a death, birth or marriage to which the 1959 Order applies (“qualified informants”). By this Order, article 3 of the 1959 Order has been amended so that, in relation to a birth to which the 1959 Order applies, either parent of the child may be a qualified informant subject to special provisions which apply in cases where the child’s parents were not married to each other when the child was born, or where the child was conceived after fertility treatment undertaken after the father’s death.