SECOND READING. (Hansard, 9 July 1872)

THE EARL OF MORLEY

, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, it was one to render the registration of births and deaths compulsory in England instead of permissive as at present. The Act regulating the present system of registration was the 6 & 7 Will. IV., c. 86; but since the passing of that enactment compulsory Registration Acts had been passed for Scotland and Ireland. In England and Wales there was no penalty whatever attached to the omission to register a birth. In the case of deaths there was a penalty of £10 on the official who buried any person without obtaining from the undertaker a certificate of death signed by the registrar, or, in case no certificate was produced, without giving notice to the registrar of the district immediately after the burial. Under the present law, neither in the case of births or deaths was it compulsory on the relatives, or any other person, to give the information to the registrar in the first instance. This Bill proposed to render the notice compulsory, and threw the duty upon the relatives or some other "qualified informant." In the case of births the obligation was thrown primarily on the parents; but where there were no parents, on the occupier of the house—which included the resident officer of any public institution—in which the birth took place, and some relative of the child or other person present. It provided, also, that notice should be given to the registrar of any living new-born child found exposed. As regarded deaths, the Bill provided that the death of every person dying in England should be registered. It threw the duty of giving notice to the registrar, in the case of a person dying in a dwelling-house, upon the relatives present, or, in the absence of any relative, upon some person present at the death, and the "occupier." Then followed a provision for notice in case the death did not take place in a dwelling-house or the body was found exposed. It was provided that no death should be registered without the production of the certificate of the medical 859 attendant, or, where there had been none, on the joint statement of two informants. There was also an amendment of the provisions for the registration of births and deaths at sea.