Births and Deaths Registration (Amendment) Bill 2022 gazetted
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The Bill seeks to modernise the death registration regime to reflect the prevailing practice by specifying the duties for death registration with respect to the cause of death as opposed to where the death took place, and to extend the statutory time limit for registration of deaths from natural causes from the current 24 hours to 14 days. The Bill also removes the requirement for applicants for registration of births and deaths to attend the registries in person.
A spokesman for the Security Bureau said, "The extension of the statutory time limit for registration of deaths from natural causes will allow the relatives to have more time to handle the after-death arrangements of the deceased, without the risk of breaching the law unintentionally.
"We also aim to provide more convenient services to the public by enabling the electronic submission of applications for registration of births and deaths," the spokesman added.
Under the Births and Deaths Registration Ordinance (Cap. 174), all births and deaths taking place in Hong Kong are required to be registered with the Registrar of Births and Deaths. Following a review of the Ordinance, the Government proposes to bring the relevant provisions up-to-date to meet present-day needs and to provide more convenient services to the public using information technology.
The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for the first reading and second reading on November 30.
Ends/Friday, November 18, 2022
Issued at HKT 11:00
Issued at HKT 11:00
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