Obtaining birth certificates

You will be issued with a ‘short’ birth certificate free of charge at the time of the registration. This only happens once so if you re-register at a later time you will not be given another free copy.

The short birth certificate is suitable for claiming ‘Child Benefit’ and it shows the baby’s names and surname, sex, date of birth and the registration district and sub-district.
The full birth certificate is suitable for applying for a passport and it shows all the above details plus the parent’s details and the exact place of birth.

You may purchase as many certificates as you like at the time of registration for a fee of £3.50 per certificate. The price of these certificates will stay at £3.50 until such time as the Register has been completed.

Once the Register has been completed then the cost of any further certificates that you may wish to purchase will be £5.50 for a short birth certificate and £7.00 for a full birth certificate.

Please remember that if you chose to go to another Register Office and make a birth declaration, the free ‘short’ certificate will be forwarded on to you from Chelsea once the birth has been registered here. If you wish to obtain any other certificates in addition to the ‘free’ one then you will need to enclose the appropriate payment (£3.50 per certificate).

Important: Copies of birth certificates are only available from the office where the birth is registered and not where the birth declaration was made.

Births Deaths and Marriages