Registration of Stillbirths (England and Wales)

What the Bill proposes is not an untested innovation. In Scotland, parents have already been offered the option of registering stillbirths remotely. Registrars can conduct appointments by telephone or online, while maintaining the necessary legal safeguards and verification processes. The system works, preserving the integrity of the register process, while giving bereaved families greater compassion and flexibility. If it can work in Scotland, there is every reason to believe it can work in England and Wales.

Indeed, the principle is one that the Government have increasingly embraced in other areas of public administration, with many services now moved online by design. In fact, during the covid-19 pandemic, Parliament recognised that requiring bereaved families to attend in person was neither necessary nor appropriate. Temporary provisions allowed deaths and stillbirths to be registered remotely, with information provided by telephone and other methods. Those temporary changes demonstrated that the system could operate effectively without insisting that grieving families attend in person.

If remote registration was considered sufficiently robust during one of the greatest public health emergencies our country has faced in generations, then surely it can work today. The pandemic showed us that when the Government need to be flexible, they can be. The Bill simply asks that we show the same flexibility because of compassion, rather than a virus. The Bill asks that bereaved parents are afforded the same consideration at all times.

In preparing the Bill, I have also been struck by the work of organisations such as Sands and Tommy’s. For decades, they have provided practical advice, counselling and support for families affected by pregnancy and baby loss. They also work tirelessly to improve bereavement care and maternity services across the UK. Their work reminds us that support following baby loss is as much about care and compassion as it is clinical care. It is also about every interaction that families have afterwards with hospitals, with local authorities and with Government itself. We have to put people first. We rightly talk in this House about trauma-informed public services, and it is important that the registration process reflects that.

More broadly, I hope that the Bill prompts us to reflect on how the state interacts with its citizens. Too often, users are expected to navigate processes designed for another era that do not put people first. I also hope that the Bill shows that there is something special about our democratic process. Cassie and Ryan first raised this issue with me at one of my constituency advice surgeries in Royton town hall. They came as grieving parents who believed that something in our law could be kinder than it is today.

Thanks to our parliamentary democracy, constituents can see the issues they raised debated on the Floor of the House and enter the official record. I think there is something profoundly important about that. It demonstrates that Parliament is at its best when it listens carefully, responding thoughtfully and seeking practical improvements to people’s lives.

The Bill has cross-party support. I know that not many ten-minute rule Bills make it into law, but I hope that this is something that the Government can listen to and take forward. For the sake of families like Cassie and Ryan, and in memory of Matilda, I commend this Bill to the House.

That Jim McMahon, Rushanara Ali, Anneliese Dodds, Maya Ellis, Carolyn Harris, Simon Hoare, Wera Hobhouse, Alicia Kearns, Uma Kumaran, Andy MacNae, Sarah Smith and Gareth Snell present the Bill.

Jim McMahon accordingly presented the Bill.