Registration of Stillbirths Bill (HC Bill 153)
A
BILL
TO
Amend the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 to provide that parents
may register the death of a child stillborn before the threshold of 24 weeks
gestation.
Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present
Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Amendment of the Births and Death Registration Act 1953
(1)
Section 41(1) of the Births and Death Registration Act 1953 is amended as
follows.
(2)
Leave out the definition of “still-born child” and insert—
-
5““still-born child” means a child which has issued forth from its
mother and which did not at any time breathe or show any
other signs of life, following the recognised processes of labour
including regular, painful uterine contractions resulting in
progressive cervical effacement and dilation; and the
10expression “still-birth” shall be construed accordingly.”
2 Short title and commencement
(1) This Act may be cited as the Registration of Stillbirths Act 2014.
(2)
This Act comes into force at the end of the period of 2 months beginning with
the day on which it is passed.