Act of Parliament · 2020 Revised Edition
Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1937
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s 1Short title
This Act is the Registration of Births and Deaths Act 1937.
s 2Interpretation
In this Act —“house” includes a public institution;“medical practitioner” means a person registered under the Medical Registration Act 1997;“occupier” includes the keeper, master, matron, superintendent or other chief resident officer of every public institution, and, where a house is let in separate apartments or lodgings, includes any person residing in such house who is the person under whom such lodgings or separate apartments are immediately held or his agent;“public institution” includes prison, lockup, mental hospital, hospital, and any other public or charitable institution;“register” includes all register books in existence on 1 July 1938 as well as any registers provided under section 5;“stillborn” and “stillbirth” apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother after the 28th week of pregnancy and which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother breathe or show any other signs of life; words referring to burial of bodies shall be held to include burning of bodies.
“house” includes a public institution;
“medical practitioner” means a person registered under the Medical Registration Act 1997;
“occupier” includes the keeper, master, matron, superintendent or other chief resident officer of every public institution, and, where a house is let in separate apartments or lodgings, includes any person residing in such house who is the person under whom such lodgings or separate apartments are immediately held or his agent;
“public institution” includes prison, lockup, mental hospital, hospital, and any other public or charitable institution;
“register” includes all register books in existence on 1 July 1938 as well as any registers provided under section 5;
“stillborn” and “stillbirth” apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother after the 28th week of pregnancy and which did not at any time after being completely expelled from its mother breathe or show any other signs of life; words referring to burial of bodies shall be held to include burning of bodies.
The Minister may appoint, by name or office, a Registrar‑General of Births and Deaths who shall be responsible for carrying out the provisions of this Act and shall have general charge and supervision of all registers kept and of all matters done or performed under this Act.
The Minister may appoint, by name or office, a registrar for each local registration area with such supervising deputy registrars, deputy registrars, clerks and subordinate officers as he may think necessary for the purpose of performing the several duties prescribed by this Act.
The limits of each local registration area shall be such as may be from time to time declared by notification in the Gazette and shall, unless otherwise provided, be deemed to include the territorial waters of Singapore adjacent thereto.
The Registrar-General shall, within such period after the expiration of every year as may be prescribed, and in any case not later than 31 March in each year, compile a summary of the births and deaths of the past year in the prescribed form.
The Registrar-General shall also at the same time compile a general report on the increase or decrease of the population, and on any special causes appearing to affect the same as far as the same can be assumed from the registrars’ returns.
The Registrar-General shall cause to be provided a sufficient number of registers for the registration of all births and deaths, and shall furnish to every registrar such registers as he requires.
Such registers shall be in the prescribed form.
The registers of each local registration area shall be kept at the office of the registrar, whose duty it shall be carefully to preserve the same, and the custody thereof shall be handed down to succeeding registrars of that area in such manner as the Minister may direct.
On the application of the Registrar-General the Minister shall cause to be furnished, at the expense of the Government, for the use of the registrars, sufficient fireproof receptacles, strongrooms and other equipment to hold and preserve the registers to be kept by such registrars.
Every such receptacle or strongroom shall be furnished with a lock and 2 keys and no more, and one of such keys shall be kept by the registrar and the other key shall be kept by the Registrar‑General.
The registers of each local registration area while in the custody of a registrar and not in use shall always be kept in the aforesaid receptacles or strongrooms, which shall always be kept locked.
s 7Registers not open to public inspection
Registers shall not be open to inspection by the public.
Every deputy registrar shall inform himself carefully of every birth, stillbirth and death occurring in his district and shall forward particulars of the same in the prescribed form through the supervising deputy registrar (if any) to the registrar of the local registration area, who shall register the same without delay in the prescribed register.
In cases of death the deputy registrar or some other officer authorised by a registrar or supervising deputy registrar for the purpose of this subsection shall if practicable personally inspect the corpse and make enquiries among the persons present at the death, unless the fact and cause of death are certified by a medical practitioner in the prescribed form.
Every deputy registrar shall forward through the supervising deputy registrar (if any) to the registrar at intervals of not more than one week reports of births and deaths registered within his area, setting forth when possible the name, residence, age, sex, nationality, race, and occupation of each deceased person, period of continuous residence in Singapore and last place of residence before arrival in Singapore, as well as the duration of illness, the date and cause of death, the name and qualification of the medical practitioner certifying the same and such other particulars as may be prescribed.
Where a child is born alive, a person mentioned in subsection (2) must, no later than the 14th day after the day of the birth —
provide to any deputy registrar of the local registration area in which the birth has occurred the particulars of the birth in the prescribed form; and
certify to the correctness of the information by signing the person’s name in the prescribed place on the form.
The persons for the purposes of subsection (1) are —
a parent of the child;
where the child is the subject of a voluntary care agreement under which the Director‑General of Social Welfare, a protector or the care‑giver of the child may apply for a birth certificate for the child — the Director‑General of Social Welfare, protector or care‑giver, as the case may be;
where the child is the subject of an order under section 54(1)(b) or 56(2), or section 57 (read with section 56) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1993 under which the Director‑General of Social Welfare, a protector or the care‑giver of the child may apply for the birth certificate for the child — the Director‑General of Social Welfare, protector or care‑giver of the child, as the case may be;
where the child is born in a house, an occupier of the house who knows that the child is born;
where the child is born on a ship or vessel, the master or other person having charge of the ship or vessel;
a person present at the birth of the child; or
a person having charge of the child.
In this section, “care‑giver”, “protector” and “voluntary care agreement” have the meanings given by section 2(1) of the Children and Young Persons Act 1993.
The name of a child to be entered in a register of births in respect of the registration of the child’s birth and, where the child’s name in the register is to be altered, the child’s altered name to be entered in the register —
must be in a form expressed in characters in the modern English alphabet;
may include a permitted character; and
must not exceed the number of characters permitted in the electronic form of the register for the entry of a name.
In subsection (1)(b), “permitted character” means a character that the Registrar‑General, by notification in the Gazette, specifies.
Any surname of a child to be entered in respect of the registration of the birth of the child shall be that of the father of the child; but where the child is illegitimate and the father is not an informant of the birth, the surname, if any, shall be that of the mother of the child.
The registrar may at any time within 7 years after the birth of a child in his local registration area add the surname of the child to an entry in other respects complete, on proof to his satisfaction that the person on whose behalf the application is made is the person referred to in the entry and such addition shall be made known in writing to the Registrar-General.
Where before 5 October 1979, the father of an illegitimate child was an informant of the birth of the child and —
the joint surnames of both parents of the child; or
the surname of the mother of the child,has been entered in a register of births as having been given to the child, the registrar having the custody of the register shall, upon an application being made in accordance with subsection (4), forthwith enter in the register the surname of the father as having been given to that child, without making any erasure of the original entry.
An application for the surname of the father of an illegitimate child to be entered in a register of births as having been given to the child shall —
be made in the prescribed form by any parent or guardian of the child or, where the child has attained 21 years of age, by himself; and
be accompanied by the prescribed fee.
Subject to subsections (2) and (3) where before the expiration of 12 months from the date of the birth of any child —
which was registered without a name, a name is given to the child; or
the name by which the child was registered is altered,the registrar having the custody of the register in which the birth was registered, upon delivery to him at any time of a certificate in the prescribed form signed —
if the name was given or altered in baptism, either by the person who performed the rite of baptism or by the person who has the custody of the register (if any) in which the baptism is recorded;
if the name has not been given to the child in baptism, by the father, mother or guardian of the child or other person procuring the name of the child to be altered,and upon payment to him by the person procuring the name mentioned in the certificate to be entered of the prescribed fee, shall, without any erasure of the original entry, forthwith enter in the register the name mentioned in the certificate as having been given to the child, and state upon the certificate the fact that the entry has been made.
Not more than one entry under subsection (1) shall be made by the registrar in respect of any child.
No alteration of any name shall be entered in any register under subsection (1) after a certified extract of the relevant entry in the register of births has been furnished to any person.
Where the name of a child is given or altered in baptism the person who performed the rite of baptism or who has the custody of any register in which the baptism is recorded shall issue the certificate required under this section on payment of a fee not exceeding $1.
This section shall not apply in relation to a stillborn or deceased child and shall be without prejudice to section 12.
Notwithstanding section 11 the Registrar-General may in his discretion, on application being made to him in the prescribed form and on payment of the prescribed fee, enter or cause to be entered in the register in which the birth was registered the name of any child the birth of which was registered without a name not more than 7 years before the date of the application.
Any person who is aggrieved by any decision of the Registrar‑General under subsection (1) may appeal therefrom to the Minister whose decision shall be final and conclusive.
s 12ARegistrar‑General may refuse entry or alteration of name in register of births
The Registrar‑General may refuse the entry or alteration of a child’s name in a register of births under this Act if the name (including the altered name) —
contains anything that represents or resembles a title, a rank or an award;
where the name adopts a patronymic or matronymic naming system to signify lineage, includes any expression or abbreviation (for the purpose of that naming system) that does not correspond to the child’s gender entered or to be entered in the register;
is obscene or offensive; or
is contrary to the public interest.
It shall be the duty of the parent or guardian or other person having the custody of a child whose birth was registered without a name to apply in the prescribed manner for the registration of the name of the child within 12 months of the date of the birth of the child.
Any person whose duty it is under subsection (1) to apply for the registration of a child’s name and who without reasonable cause fails to do so within the time required shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100 and to a further fine not exceeding $40 for every day during which such failure continues after conviction:Provided that the Registrar-General may impose and order to be paid to him forthwith a penalty not exceeding $50 and, for every day during which such failure continues after the imposition of the penalty, a further penalty not exceeding $20; and he shall pay into the Consolidated Fund all penalties received by him under this subsection.
No prosecution shall be instituted for any offence in respect of which the Registrar-General has imposed a penalty under the proviso to subsection (2).
The amount of any penalty imposed under the proviso to subsection (2) may be recovered in the manner provided by section 319(1)(b)(iii) of the Criminal Procedure Code 2010, as if it were a fine.
s 14Stillbirths
In the case of every stillbirth it shall, unless there has been an inquest, be the duty of the person who would, if the child had been born alive, have been required by section 9 to give information concerning the birth, to give information within 14 days after the stillbirth has taken place to any deputy registrar of the local registration area in which the stillbirth occurred of the particulars required to be registered concerning the stillbirth and every such person on giving information shall either —
deliver to the deputy registrar a written certificate in the prescribed form that the child was not born alive, signed by a medical practitioner or a registered midwife within the meaning of the Nurses and Midwives Act 1999 who was in attendance at the birth, or by a medical practitioner who has examined the body of the child; or
make a declaration in the prescribed form to the effect that no medical practitioner or registered midwife was present at the birth, or that no medical practitioner has examined the body, or that a certificate as required in paragraph (a) cannot be obtained and that the child was not born alive.
When a person dies in a house the occupier of the house in which to his knowledge the death took place and the relatives of the deceased present at his death or in attendance during the last illness of the deceased, and each person present at the death, and in default of the persons heretofore in this subsection mentioned, each inmate of the house, the person causing the body of the deceased person to be buried, within 24 hours after the death, shall furnish to any deputy registrar of the local registration area within which the death has occurred, the particulars of the death in the prescribed form and shall certify to the correctness of the particulars by signing his name in the prescribed place on the form.
When a person dies in a place which is not a house, or a dead body is found elsewhere than in a house, every relative of the deceased person having knowledge of any particulars required to be registered concerning the death, and every person present at the death, and every person taking charge of the body, and, if the death occurs in a ship or vessel the master or other person having charge of the ship or vessel and the person causing the body to be buried shall give to the registrar or deputy registrar, within 24 hours after the death or the finding, such information of the particulars required to be registered concerning the death as the informant possesses, and shall certify to the correctness of such information by signing his name in the prescribed place in the register.