Draft Registration of Births and Deaths (England and Wales) (Specified Requirements) Regulations 2026
House of Commons · General Committees · 1 Sep 2026 · 29 speeches · Official Report
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
Chair: Graham Stringer
† Aldridge, Dan (Weston-super-Mare) (Lab)
† Bool, Sarah (South Northamptonshire) (Con)
† Botterill, Jade (Lord Commissioner of His Majesty's Treasury)
Bradley, Dame Karen (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)
† Campbell, Juliet (Broxtowe) (Lab)
† Carden, Dan (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)
† Davies, Paul (Colne Valley) (Lab)
† Irons, Natasha (Croydon East) (Lab)
† Joseph, Sojan (Ashford) (Lab)
† Kearns, Alicia (Rutland and Stamford) (Con)
† Khan, Naushabah (Gillingham and Rainham) (Lab)
Lam, Katie (Weald of Kent) (Con)
† Minns, Ms Julie (Carlisle) (Lab)
† Murray, Susan (Mid Dunbartonshire) (LD)
† Thompson, Adam (Erewash) (Lab)
† White, Jo (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department)
Wilkinson, Max (Cheltenham) (LD)
Danni Kinder, Stella-Maria Gabriel, Committee Clerks
† attended the Committee
First Delegated Legislation Committee
Tuesday 1 September 2026
[Graham Stringer in the Chair ]
Draft Registration of Births and Deaths (England and Wales) (Specified Requirements) Regulations 2026
I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Registration of Births and Deaths (England and Wales) (Specified Requirements) Regulations 2026. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. In keeping with wider efforts to improve the accessibility of public services, the draft regulations form part of the Government’s programme to modernise the registration of births, stillbirths and deaths in England and Wales. They support the move from paper registers to a fully electronic registration system, while preserving the integrity, reliability and legal certainty that have always been central to civil registration. Before setting out the detail of the draft regulations, it may be helpful if I provide some historical context. Since 1837, the registration of a birth, stillbirth or death has involved an individual attending a register office and signing a paper register in ink. Although that process has served the public well, it reflects a system designed for a different era. As public services increasingly make use of secure digital technology, it is right that the registration system keeps pace, and the draft regulations will aid us in that endeavour. Instead of requiring a handwritten signature in a paper register, if a person complies with certain specified requirements at the time of registering a birth or death, they will be treated as having signed the register and, where relevant, in the presence of the registrar. Removing the requirement to...
It is a real joy, as ever, to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. The regulations before us are welcome. They will make it more convenient for people to register major events in their lives, some of which are the most immensely joyous, and some of which are profoundly heartbreaking. We in this place should be very cautious about imposing duties or obligations on people when they experience a major event in their lives. When we impose such obligations, as we clearly do in respect of registering births and deaths, we should try to make it as easy as possible for them to fulfil those obligations. I particularly welcome the move to make the process easier in relation to stillborns, but I urge the Government to look at what more can be done to ensure that those having to register the stillbirth of a child do not, at a time of great difficulty for them, have to go into a waiting room that is often full of babies and parents who are celebrating a great joy coming into their lives. The Bill applies a principle correctly, but it could and should be applied more broadly. The Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 introduced by this Government ought to make it simpler to ensure that people’s interactions with the state are as hassle-free as possible, yet in areas such as healthcare, where digitisation and use of personal data can have a profound impact on user experience, we have often heard resistance to reform. Properly implemented digitisation can make life easier for healthcare staff...
In relation to stillborns, the new process will mean that people can telephone or record the death digitally. That means that they can do it in the privacy of their own homes. They will not have to confront the difficulties that are present with going in to register a stillbirth, where there is the fear of seeing people presenting the joyous side of the birth of a new baby. It gives them privacy and comfort, as well as the security that their lives can begin to start again once they have gone through that process. Question put and agreed to .
Committee rose.