"II. The Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1926 aimed mainly to provide stronger safeguards against the concealment of crime in relation to the disposal of the dead. Local authorities could arrange for the medical inspection in certain instances of the body of the deceased, and could regulate certain means of disposal. Furthermore, stillbirths were required to be registered for the first time....The Act came into effect in July 1927 but did not apply to Scotland or Northern Ireland."
"III. The Registration of Still‐Births (Scotland) Act came into operation on 1 January 1939, extending the Scottish death registration process to any child born without sign of life after the twenty‐eighth week of pregnancy. Essentially the Act extended the operation of the existing legislation for England and Wales to Scotland,
but with one important addition—that a
statement of the cause or probable cause of death was required from the doctor or midwife who certified the stillbirth. This scheduling of the causes of stillbirth was seen to be innovative and potentially highly useful to those interested in the subject of infant mortality, the Registrar General for Scotland noting that it was the first official attempt to generate such a record in Britain since in England only the fact of the stillbirth had to be registered.
In November 1937, while the Scottish Registration of Still‐Births Bill was being prepared, the Scottish Registrar General had written to his English counterpart...asking whether cause of stillbirth had ever been considered when the bill that introduced English stillbirth registration was being drafted and, if so, why it was omitted. The response was that, despite much discussion...it had been deemed a ‘matter of extreme difficulty even for a registered medical practitioner to diagnose the cause of a stillbirth, and that in fact a comparative small proportion of stillbirths [were] attended by registered medical practitioners’."
"IV...A decade after stillbirth registration began in Scotland, the GRO in London, as a result of Scotland's apparent success in relation to stillbirth causation, began to consider implementing similar measures"
After wide discussion of the matter, registration of the causes of stillbirth was finally introduced into England and Wales in 1960 through the Population (Statistics) Act." [end of section IV]
On re-reading was interesting to see the bit about the Notification of Births Act 1907. Does not require any register to be kept, but required informing the medical officer of both births & still-births - looked it up.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Edw7/7/40/enacted and also enacted Ireland 1907
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1907/act/40/enacted/en/print.html(1) In the case of every child born in an area in which this Act is adopted it shall be the duty of the father of the child, if he is actually residing in the house where the birth takes place at the time of its occurrence, and of any person in attendance upon the mother at the time of, or within six hours after, the birth, to give notice in writing of the birth to the medical officer of health of the district in which the child is born, in manner provided by this section.
(5) This section shall apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother after the expiration of the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, whether alive or dead.
Extended to take effect in every area by Notification of Births (Extension) Act 1915
(1) The [7 Edw. 7. c. 40.] Notification of Births Act, 1907 shall, on and after the 1st of September, 1915, extend to and take effect in every area in which it is not already in force.
(3)Where by virtue of this Act the principal Act comes into force in any area in which it is not already in force, it shall be the duty of the local authority to bring the provisions of the principal Act to the attention of all medical practitioners and midwives practising in the area.
