Registering baby late

[Anonanon12]

Hi, our baby is almost 12 weeks and I thought the midwife said we have 6 months to register her instead of 6 weeks, my oh confirms this as he has an amazing memory for details and we paid attention as we didn't want to take her out to an office with covid going around. Anyway, I called the registrar and she was really rude saying its 6 weeks, we are already late doing it and book in ASAP even though that meant travelling from teir 4 to 2. So I told her no and we would need to take our other children along too which is just silly.
So I've booked for the 20th Jan but tbh with how things are, the kids might not be at school so we would have to take them all in with us to the appointment as me and the Dad aren't married, so we have to go in together, and take the 8 year old and 3 year old in too.

So what happens legally if we don't register her? Can we wait till Spring and register her when cases are lower do you think? If she needed any medical treatment for example, would there be any consequences of her not being registered yet?
I would ask the registrar but she was so rude I don't fancy calling back

Can you get an online appt? My registrars were doing them during lockdown. Not sure if they are still though.

Don't travel.

Rebook at your local Register Office and do it there by declaration (this is legal and normal)

Just keep apologising for mucking up the time limits, and I doubt anyone will take any action at all

I thought the time limits were suspended at the moment due to Covid. At any rate, you certainly don't need the birth certificate right now to access GP /medical services. Or to register for stuff like Child Benefit. To be honest, whole obviously you'd want to do it sooner rather than later, I'm not sure not having one will have any practical effects at the moment unless you need to get a passport or open a bank account for her.

I think in normal times they could fine you but I very much doubt they’d be doing that at the moment. You must have registered her with a GP by now? You normally need a birth certificate to do that but they let me register my son without one as I didn’t have one due to covid. I’d do it when you can but waiting a couple more weeks isn’t going to do any harm

You don't have to 'take her out to an office'. One parent can register a birth - I thought the most usual thing was for the dad to do it ASAP.

https://www.gov.uk/register-birth

[quote ErrolTheDragon]You don't have to 'take her out to an office'. One parent can register a birth - I thought the most usual thing was for the dad to do it ASAP.

[[https://www.gov.uk/register-birth]][/quote]
Only if the couple are married. If they’re not married they both have to present to register.

Although not sure what the rules are now re covid.

Here's the bit for unmarried parents, there's a form for the one who doesn't go to to the registering to fill in

Unmarried parents
The details of both parents can be included on the birth certificate if one of the following happens:
• they sign the birth register together
• one parent completes a statutory declaration of parentage form and the other takes the signed form to register the birth
• one parent goes to register the birth with a document from the court (for example, a court order) giving the father parental responsibility
Download ‘Statutory declaration of parentage’ (PDF, 29KB))_

Or the mother can register the birth alone and add the father later. The rules aren't hard to find.

www.gov.uk/register-birth/who-can-register-a-birth

As others have said, there is a form your partner can fill out meaning only one of you need to go to the office.
It does sound like you're being difficult about it tbh.

A bit odd, it reads like you really don’t want to do it, if you wait till spring you’d unlikely to have even met thr six months. And with two other kids I’m surprised you both thought it was six months.

You just need to get it done.

So what happens legally if we don't register her?

You can be fined up to £200.

Also you may not be able to claim benefits for your baby. The time to register a birth is 42 days and has been in place since at least 1875 if not 1837. In this Internet world its not hard to check!

Did you not register the other 2?!

@ArnoldBee

Also you may not be able to claim benefits for your baby. The time to register a birth is 42 days and has been in place since at least 1875 if not 1837. In this Internet world its not hard to check!

My MIL was registered 3 months late back in about 1918. I'm not sure this still is how it works, but it meant she had an official birthday 3 months after her real one and her state pension didn't start till then. It was a bloody pain for DH after she died as for some things he needed her real birthday but others it was the official one. There was something or other that only got sorted out because she had a very unusual name so the discrepancy in date was allowed.

Many councils did suspend the registration of births during the initial lockdown period earlier in the year but resumed it in the summer, albeit with a large backlog to get through, so leeway was given to the many late registrations and fines were not issued in most cases. I don't know where you stand on that nearly 6 months later. On dodgy ground possibly. You should have checked it out and made enquiries shortly after your baby was born.

You won't have been able to claim child benefit or open bank accounts without a birth certificate, surely.

In England and (I think) Wales the time limit has always been 42 days from the date of birth. That is 6 weeks. In Scotland it is 21 days (3 weeks).

I think that the leeway is given to those who have been trying to register throughout the backlog but weren't able to. Maybe less so to those who simply haven't done it for months.

I hope you are not fined, but you could be as you didn't even check. Perhaps the current situation and approaching third lockdown will work in your favour, but don't count on it.

Being difficult about it?? We can't go anywhere or do anything for risk of covid, but it's OK to go to an inside office where many people are going to register a birth with a newborn??? I'm being difficult as I am worried about my baby catching covid and trying to limit where we go indoors.

And I have never heard about it being the done thing with Dad's doing the registering part, ever...

Of course I am aware that the usual deadline is 6 weeks, hence having the other children done at about 4 weeks but the midwife definitely said we have up to 6 months now. Hence being a bit taken back by the rude response of the registrar, and the suggestion to go from a teir 4 area to teir 2. We don't need a birth certificate for anything right now, baby is registered at the Dr's without one, we don't need a passport and we are entitled to not a single penny in benefits.... My concern is primarily that I do not want to take my baby anywhere indoors right now with anyone outside of the household, it seems madness that it's OK to do with such a young child!

My concern is primarily that I do not want to take my baby anywhere indoors right now with anyone outside of the household, it seems madness that it's OK to do with such a young child!

Sure, perfectly reasonable not to want to do that - but you don't have to. Just fill in the declaration of parentage form (link in my post upthread) and then your partner can do it.

Unless you are going nowhere, both working from home, not going to baby’s medical checks and homeschooling then the new baby is already being exposed to many others so one trip out is unlikely to be any riskier than the other two attending school daily.

Fill the forms in and get the dad to do it.

That's the way I've been dealing with the covid situation so far is by telling myself that there is more risk of catching covid by the kids being in school than me going to get the baby her injections etc.
Just seems crazy to me though that you can't do the registering online or via zoom, to take the risk of people going to the registry office who have recently been in hospital to give birth... And taking a newborn out just to register them etc. But anyway, I've downloaded that form so thank you to those who gave me that info. I just need to call them to make sure I'm filling it in correctly and if the baby actually needs to be present for the registration, if not, we've decided that my partner will go.
Still annoyed they didn't tell me this on the phone though that it could be an option.
With all the kids and a newborn, it's not exactly easy to dedicate time to find out all the information, I've barely had time to shower in the first 4 weeks, let alone make calls, download forms and book the registration appt. When the midwife did in fact tell us we had 6 months because of covid

Surely if you are doing the form, it's a statutory declaration, and you'll need a solicitor to administer it. In person.

Yes that's correct, you would need a solicitor to do it so it isn't possible for just the Dad to go unfortunately, but one local registry office has cancelled all the appointments my local one said I can push the date back till March so that hopefully my kids are back to school otherwise we will all be going there which seems ridiculous with covid and a young baby etc.

Hi OP,

Did you wait until March in the end? I'm unable to get an appointment so wondering what to do.