The Act: Overview Registration of births Section 25: Giving information of particulars of birth remotely
90.This section amends the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 (“the Registration Act”) to enable the process for registering a birth to be carried out remotely, and also to facilitate registers being kept electronically.
91.Prior to the amendment coming into force, registering a birth normally required that a parent of the child, or another person in certain circumstances, provide the district registrar with details of the birth in person. The registration form then had to be signed in the registrar’s physical presence.
92.Section 25 amends section 14(1A) of the Registration Act to enable district registrars to set out alternative ways of providing them with details of a birth. District registrars will only be able to offer alternatives that have been approved by the Registrar General for Scotland (see new section 14A(1), inserted by section 25(3) of this Act).
93.Section 25 further amends section 14(1A) of the Registration Act so that alternative ways of providing details of a birth can be set at a national level by the Registrar General for Scotland.
94.The amendments to section 14 provide that where the informant can provide information remotely or attest a birth registration form remotely, the choice of whether to do so is for the informant.
95.New section 14A requires that any directions setting out alternatives to physically attending a registration office to provide details of a birth be put in the public domain. It ensures that directions can be changed or withdrawn. And it makes clear that although district registrars, and the Registrar General, have the option of allowing details of births to be provided otherwise than by physically attending a registration office, they are not required to do so.
96.Section 25 also allows for the registration form to be attested without requiring that the person attesting it do so physically. As mentioned, attestation of the form currently entails physically signing it in the registration office. New subsection (1C) of section 14 of the Registration Act (inserted by section 25(2)(c) of this Act) provides two options for attesting a registration form:
	the form might be attested by the person providing the details of the birth through a process that the Registrar General has approved, or
	an official might attest the form on the person’s behalf (for example by transposing the person’s signature onto an electronic version of the form), which must also be done in a way approved by the Registrar General.
97.Section 25 makes similar adjustments to sections 16, 18 and 18B of the Registration Act. Section 16 deals with the completion of a birth registration form in a case where nobody has done so within the period required by section 14. Amendments to section 16 provide that where the informant can provide information remotely or attest a birth registration form remotely, the choice of whether to do so is for the informant.
98.Section 18 of the Registration Act deals with the joint registration of a child’s birth by the child’s mother and father in cases where they are not married to, or in a civil partnership with, one another. Section 18B deals with the joint registration of a child’s birth by the child’s mother and another woman in cases where they are not married to, or in a civil partnership with, one another. The amendments made by section 25 of this Act allow those registration processes to be carried out remotely too and allow a birth registration form to be attested on a person’s behalf (whether or not the particulars of birth are given remotely). Amendments to section 18 provide that where the informant can attest a birth registration form remotely, the choice of whether to do so is for the informant.
99.The adjustments made to section 16B(2) of the Registration Act by section 25 of this Act, and the insertion of new section 21A, are consequential on those already discussed. Section 16B(2) prevents the registration of a birth from being completed, where the birth registration form has been completed remotely, until a public authority (such as a health board) has confirmed the details of the birth. Section 25 of this Act amends section 16B so that it refers to the processes for completion of birth certificates enabled by the amendments discussed above. The new section 21A of the Registration Act defines “birth registration form”, following the repeal of the original definition as part of the modifications made to section 14.