Birth Information and Tracing Act 2022

Provision of birth certificate to applicant under section 6 aged 18 years or over

7. (1) On receipt of an application referred to in subsection (1) or (2) of section 6 made by an applicant who has attained the age of 18 years, the recipient body shall, unless subsection (4) of that section applies or it is satisfied that each relevant parent is deceased, inform the Authority of the application and ascertain from the Authority, in respect of each relevant parent, whether, on the basis of the information available to it, any of the following applies:

(a) he or she has not made a statement under section 38 (11);

(b) he or she has made a statement under section 38 (11) that either of the following applies:

(i) he or she is seeking to have contact with the applicant;

(ii) he or she is willing to be contacted by the applicant;

(c) he or she has made a statement under section 38 (11) that he or she is not willing to be contacted by the applicant, and an information session has already taken place;

(d) he or she, to the knowledge of the Authority, is deceased;

(e) he or she is not willing to be contacted by the applicant and no information session has taken place.

(2) The recipient body shall comply with subsection (3) where one of the following applies in respect of each relevant parent:

(a) the recipient body has, under subsection (1), ascertained from the Authority that paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d) of that subsection applies in relation to the relevant parent;

(b) the recipient body is satisfied, whether on the basis of information obtained from the Authority under this section or other information, that the relevant parent is deceased.

(3) Where subsection (2) applies, the recipient body shall—

(a) comply with subsection (1) or (2), as the case may be, of section 6 , and

(b) in so complying, where paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1) applies in relation to a relevant parent, inform the applicant, in accordance with guidelines under section 19 (1), of that fact.

(4) Where the recipient body, under subsection (1), ascertains from the Authority that paragraph (e) of that subsection applies in relation to a relevant parent, it shall—

(a) provide the Authority with the contact details of the applicant, and

(b) comply with subsection (1) or (2), as the case may be, of section 6 only where it has received a notification under section 17 (4)(a) of the completion of an information session in respect of the relevant parent concerned with the applicant.

(5) In this section and section 8 , “relevant parent” means, in relation to the entry in the register of births pertaining to a relevant person or the birth certificate of a relevant person, the person, or each person, who is named in the entry or, as the case may be, on the birth certificate as a parent of the relevant person.