The birth of every child in England and Wales is required to be registered by the registrar of births and deaths for the sub-district in which the child was born. Similarly, the death of every person dying in England or Wales is required to be registered by the registrar of births and deaths for the sub-district in which the death occurred.
	This Act removes the requirement for paper registers to be held and stored securely in each registration district and enable all births and deaths to be registered electronically. This removes the current duplication whereby births and deaths are registered both electronically and in paper registers.
	Births and deaths will continue to be registered on information provided by a qualified informant at the register office in the sub-district in which the birth or death occurred. The Act includes a regulation-making power for the relevant minister to make regulations, to provide that if a person complies with specified requirements at the time of registering a birth or death they are to be treated as having signed the register in the presence of the registrar. This may include requiring a person to sign something other than the register or requiring a person to provide specified evidence of identity.
	With the introduction of an electronic register there will no longer be a requirement for the system of quarterly returns, as all birth and death entries will be held on the single electronic register maintained by the Registrar General. It will also provide flexibility in how births and deaths are registered in the future, removing the requirement for face-to-face registration.
Registers of births and deaths