Have your say on government e-petitions

Restrict public access to birth certificates to help protect children’s privacy

Submitted by Letitia Elam on Saturday 13th September 2025

Published on Tuesday 7th October 2025

Current status: Closed

Closed: Tuesday 7th April 2026

Signatures: 39

Relevant Departments

Tagged with

Access ~ Basics ~ Bodies ~ Child ~ Children ~ Concern ~ concerns ~ date ~ FRAUD ~ Guardian ~ Historic ~ Identity ~ keeping ~ Madely ~ Pace ~ place ~ PRIVACY ~ Safeguarding ~ security ~ system

Petition Action

Restrict public access to birth certificates to help protect children’s privacy

Petition Details

We believe that it is too easy to buy a child’s birth certificate using only basic details, and this exposes children’s personal information to strangers.

Additional Information

We ask the Government to limit access to birth certificates for children under 18 to their parents/legal guardians, or authorised bodies, while keeping historic records accessible for research.

At present, anyone can obtain a certified copy of a child’s birth certificate if they know basic details (name, date of birth, place of registration, details of parents). This means sensitive personal information can be made accessible to strangers. This system has not kept pace with modern concerns about data security, child safeguarding, and identity fraud.


You can't sign this petition because it is now closed. But you can still comment on it here at Repetition.me!

Have your say on this petition!

comments powered by Disqus

repetition.me is a Good Stuff website

216.73.216.219 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 10:17:42 +0100