Renfrewshire Council

What a re-registration of a birth is for

Re-registration is the creation of a new birth entry to:

• add the natural father's or parent's details
• add the parents' marriage or civil partnership details if the marriage or civil partnership took place after the birth was originally registered.

When to apply for re-registration

A person's birth or still-birth registered in Scotland can be re-registered if the entry in the register of births:

• is affected by any matter concerning their parentage, for example, the entry does not contain their father's details
• shows, or implies, that they were found exposed (abandoned), or
• shows, or implies, that their parents were not married to each other or parties to a civil partnership at the time of their birth but their parents have subsequently married or registered their civil partnership.

Who can apply for re-registration

If the person whose birth is to be re-registered is under 16 years of age, anyone who has parental responsibilities in relation to that person (for example, the mother) can apply.

If the person whose birth is to be re-registered is 16 years of age or over, they must apply on their own behalf.

If the person whose birth is to be re-registered has died, or was still-born child, application may be made:

1. by the person's mother or, if the person's mother is married, by her husband if he is the natural father
2. if the mother is dead, by a person who has been registered as the father/parent of the child in the birth entry concerned.

Where you can re-register a birth

When an application to re-register a birth or still-birth is being made to add marriage details on the grounds that the parents subsequently married one another, it can be dealt with by any registration office, provided that the father's details appear on the birth entry, either at the time of registration, or it has been subsequently noted in the Register of Corrections.

When an application is being made to add the father's details and paternity/parentage has been shown in the Register of Corrections etc, the re-registration can be dealt with by any registration office. 

In Renfrewshire, birth re-registrations are conducted at our registration offices in Paisley, Johnstone and Renfrew. We strongly recommend that you make an appointment to ensure a member of staff is available to deal with you. Telephone numbers for each office can be found within Contacts below.

Applications that are dealt with by General Register Office where father is not named.

If the father's details did not appear on the birth entry at the time of the original registration or subsequently, and there is no decree of paternity/parentage granted by a court, then the re-registration application can only be dealt with by the Re-Registration Unit in the General Register Office for Scotland.

The parents should initially complete either set of declarations:

• Form 26 - Declaration by the mother of a child/Form DPF - Declaration as to Parentage by Father/Parent; or
• Form 27 - Declaration by the Father/Parent of a child/DPM - Declaration as to Parentage by Mother.

Form 26 can only be witnessed and signed on the same date by the child's mother in the presence of a registrar/assistant registrar in any registration office in Scotland. Form DPF can only be witnessed and signed on the same date by the child's father in the presence of a Notary Public, Justice of the Peace or a local Councillor.

Form 27 can only be witnessed and signed on the same date by the child's father in the presence of a registrar/assistant registrar in any registration office in Scotland. Form DPM can only be witnessed and signed on the same date by the child's mother in the presence of a Notary Public, Justice of the Peace or a local Councillor.

What happens next

For applications that are dealt with by the Re-Registration Unit of the General Register Office for Scotland, when the application has been processed, the applicant will receive a letter confirming that the re-registration has been authorised and the applicant is advised to contact the registration office that they have chosen to re-register the birth. 

After receiving this letter from the General Register Office, applicants have 3 weeks to re-register the birth. If after that time they have not re-registered, the registrar will write to them asking them re-register within another 3 weeks.

Re-registration costs

Re-registration is free. If a new birth certificate is needed at the time of registration, there is a fee for that, see Certificates, search and name change fees. 

Change your child's name to have the same name as their father

Here are the examples of name changes that are allowed at re-registration:

• The mother's maiden name be retained as forename if it was given as the child's surname in the original registration.
• Both parents' surnames may be hyphenated and given as the new surname.
• Where the father's surname was given as a forename at the time of the initial registration, it can be omitted if the child is being given the father's surname at re-registration.

Change of forename or surname

Where a re-registration application is made to include a change of forename (including by addition or omission) or to record a surname which is not that of the child's father, applicants will have to follow the change of forename(s) or surname(s) procedure which is within related articles.

More information

You can download the relevant forms in the Related links panel on this page. To get in touch with us, use the phone number or email addresses on this page.