Short birth certificate (Vital certificates):
Over the years, the UK registration offices have issued many types of birth certificate. The most common of these was a Short Birth Certificate. This type of birth certificate was traditionally given free of charge to new parents when they registered the birth of their child. Short certificates were also issued from Somerset House to persons that were adopted at one time. This was to prevent the adoptee from knowing that they were adopted and to protect the identity of the birth parent(s).
The problem with this type of certificate however, is that these certificates do not record the names of either parent. Due to current identify fraud legislation, most official organisations, both in the UK and abroad, will no longer accept a Short-Form certificate as evidence of identity.
