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Civil Registrations - Births

This data set includes information recorded when live births and stillbirths are registered as part of civil registration, a legal requirement, in England and Wales. The registration of births is a service carried out by the Local Registration Service in partnership with the General Register Office (GRO), in England and Wales. All registered births are included except very late registrations received more than 14 months after the end of each reference year (there are fewer than 100 of these for any given year).

Birth registrations are provided by local registries to the General Registry Office, then on to ONS for codification. 

Page contents

Data set versions as presented in the DARS online system

Civil Registrations Birth

Access method

Access method  The NHS England Secure Data Environment (SDE) service 

Data set available in packages

  • No

Period of data coverage

Civil Registration of Births Data set will cover the period of 1 January 1995 onwards

Geographical scope of data

England and Wales

Linkable to other data sets

  • Yes 

Associated data sets

Birth Notifications

Data collection process

Submitted by: Local Registration Service in partnership with General Register Office

Collected by: Office for National Statistics and provided to NHS England

Frequency: Monthly 

Clinical coding systems

Does the data set include any standardised systems of coding?

  • None of the considered coding systems are used as responses in the data fields 
Full list of coding systems considered

SNOMED-CT (a structured clinical vocabulary for use in electronic health records.)

ICD  (International Classification of Diseases classifies diseases and other health conditions.)

OPCS-4  (Office of Population Census and Surveys classification of interventions and surgical procedures)

dm+d  (Dictionary of descriptions and codes which represent medicines and devices in use across the NHS.)

NICIP (National Interim Clinical Imaging Procedure provides consistent recording of imaging procedures.)

UCUM  (Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM) is a code system intended to include all units of measurement.)

TFCs (Treatment Function Codes are used to record treatment activities undertaken)

Read Code v2  (A coded thesaurus of clinical terms.)

Read Code Clinical Terms v3 (A coded thesaurus of clinical terms.)

UICC (Union for International Cancer Control classification of cancer by anatomic disease extent.)

IMD  (Indices of Multiple Deprivation measures relative poverty.)

Derived fields

Standardised formulation may be applied across multiple data sets to generate commonly derived fields. Any standard derivations applicable to this data set are listed below. Please note that this does not include bespoke derivations created specifically for the individual data set.

  • CLINICAL COMMISSIONING GROUP OF RESIDENCE MOTHER
  • LOCAL AUTHORITY OF RESIDENCE MOTHER
  • LOWER SUPER OUTPUT AREA MOTHER
Full list of standard derivations considered

GP_PRACTICE_CODE_TRACED (The GP practice that the patient is registered at, as found when traced against the Person Demographic Service (PDS).)

CCG_OF_RESIDENCE (Clinical Commissioning Group covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls where data relates to pre 1 July 2022. Otherwise ICB Sub Location.)

ICS_OF_RESIDENCE (The Integrated Care System covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls. This will be null for any data relating to earlier than 1 July 2022.)

LA_OF_RESIDENCE (The local authority covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls.)

LSOA_OF_RESIDENCE (The Lower Super Output Area (lowest level without being disclosive) covering the area in which the patient’s postcode falls.)

CCG_OF_REGISTRATION (Clinical Commissioning Group which has a commissioning relationship with the GP practice which the patient is registered at where data relates to pre 1 July 2022. Otherwise ICB Sub Location.)

ICS_OF_REGISTRATION (The Integrated Care System covering the area in which the patient’s GP practice falls. This will be null until for any data relating to earlier than 1 July 2022.)

LA_OF_REGISTRATION (The Local Authority covering the area in which the patient’s GP practice falls.)

LSOA_OF_REGISTRATION (The Lower Super Output Area (lowest level without being disclosive) covering the area in which the patient’s GP practice falls.)

Third Party licensing

Does the data set require copyrighted clinical assessment tools or outcome measures that require a licence?

  • None

Advice and support

Governance of this data set is provided by:

Owning organisation: Office for National Statistics

Data Controller: Office for National Statistics

Data Processor: NHS England

NHS England provides a variety of functions for the data sets we make available. Therefore, our knowledge and understanding of the data will vary, impacting the level of advice and support we can provide.

In relation to this data, we have acquired it from an external third party to enable our use for specific health and care purposes. We may be able to offer some guidance but for full advice and support we will refer you to that external third party.

Supporting documentation and guidance

Last edited: 14 May 2026 4:08 pm