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Registration of births

All births which occur at Medway Maritime Hospital or anywhere else within the boundary of Medway Council need to be registered at the Medway Register Office.

A birth registration should be made within six weeks of the birth of the baby.

Registrations are made by appointment to avoid unnecessary waiting. Appointments are available between 9.30am and 3.30pm, Monday to Friday. To book an appointment to register a birth please phone 01634 338998.

If it is not possible to attend the Medway Register Office, the registration may be made by visiting any registrar’s office in England and Wales to make a declaration.

This is a statement that the local registrar will send to the Medway Register Office where the registration will be made. In this case, the birth certificate will be sent by post, normally within one week. Similarly, registrars at Medway are able to take declarations for births which take place outside the Medway area.

Birth registration is free and parents are given a free short birth certificate which can be used for child benefit applications. This certificate gives the child's names and date of birth. Full certificates which also include the parents' details are required for first passport applications for children and for many other purposes. These certificates can be purchased at the time of registration or at a later date.

When attending, it is very helpful to bring the congratulations letter issued by the hospital which confirms the date of birth and national health service number of the baby. If the letter is not available, it is helpful to bring the red book issued by the hospital shortly after the birth.

If the birth is not later re-registered, the surname of the child cannot later be changed on the registration entry.

If the birth is the result of assisted conception, then special rules apply to determine who can be recorded as the parents.

Otherwise :

If the parents are married to each other or were married at the time of conception, only one parent needs to attend to make the registration and both parents' details will be recorded..

If the parents are not married to each other, the father’s details cannot be recorded if he does not attend with the mother to make the registration unless:

  • the mother attends:

    with a statutory declaration  (pdf 31KB) made by the man acknowledging that he is the father or:
    • with a sealed copy of a parental responsibility agreement made between the parents in respect of the child or
    • with a certified copy of an appropriate court order naming the father.

or

  • the father attends:

    with a statutory declaration  (pdf 31KB) made by the mother acknowledging that he is the father or:
    • with a sealed copy of a parental responsibility agreement made between the parents in respect of the child or
    • with a certified copy of an appropriate court order naming the father.

Please contact the Register Office for further advice.

If a father is not named on a birth entry and the parents later decide that he should be named or if the father is named and the parents later marry each other, the birth can be re-registered.

A father acquires parental responsibility with the mother if he is named on a birth entry made after 1 December 2003.

Forenames can be changed on the birth entry within 12 months of the date of registration.

To use the downloaded files you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it on your computer, please use our advice page. Statutory declaration forms are also available from the register office.

Customer feedback

At the Medway Register Office we are committed to providing a professional service of a high standard and we welcome your comments. We invite you to complete a brief online survey that will only take a few minutes of your time as your feedback and views would be much appreciated.

We hope that our services are of the quality you expect but if you are not happy with the standard of service that you receive, the council operates a formal complaints procedure to look into matters.

For more information contact Medway Register Office by telephone: 01634 338899 / Fax: 01634 338913 or by email: register.office@medway.gov.uk

Write to: Medway Register Office, Northgate, Rochester, Kent ME1 1LS

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