Debate contribution: Deaths, Still-Births and Baby Loss Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Frew on 2 December 2025.

MLA

Mr Paul Frew

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

2 December 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Deaths, Still-Births and Baby Loss Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5271844

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome this day in the Chamber. It is a good news day, and that is for a number of reasons, not least because of the sensitivity of the Bill. It is a very heartfelt, sensitive Bill, and it proves that the House is listening to the people out there. The Bill started off as a very dry, mechanical Bill to move what was temporary legislation in the Coronavirus Act 2020 on to a permanent footing. That concerned the registration of deaths and births, which are very emotive, sensitive issues. It was basically a functional Bill to move good ideas from being temporary to permanent in order to lessen the burden on people who had to register deaths and births, as well as all the people who work in that field, such as undertakers and registrars. It is a very common-sense piece of legislation. The Minister and departmental officials will know that I badgered them to introduce the Bill as soon as possible. Of course, we kept getting the six-month extensions to the Coronavirus Act.

Therefore, it is good news today that we have achieved a small victory with the repeal of a piece of the Coronavirus Act 2020, albeit one of the most positive pieces of that legislation. It proves that it can be done. Even though the Coronavirus Act apparatus is still in place and although the Assembly has removed the practices of the Act, it proves that we can repeal the Coronavirus Act and completely remove it from the statute book, even though most of it is now dormant. The Assembly should take up that cause.

The Committee and my party and I pushed for the baby loss certificates. It proves that the Department, the officials and the Minister are listening, and moves were made to add the baby loss certificate provisions to the Bill. It took time and effort to get clause 11 and everything that comes with it into the Bill. That is to be applauded, because the Assembly is here to pass legislation. It is not good enough just to pass legislation: the Assembly, the Committee and the Department, with the officials and the Minister, should aim to improve legislation. From the First Reading until the Final Stage of the Bill, our job is to make the legislation better as we go through the process. I am glad to say that the Bill has been improved because of pressure from the Committee and because the Department and the Minister listened and amendments were put down in the name of Eoin Tennyson and the DUP. The Minister listened and saw what we were trying to achieve, which was to ensure that parents would not pay a fee for a baby loss certificate. It is also commendable that this is the first place in the British Isles to legislate for a baby loss certificate, and we should be proud of that. If we compare it with the policies in other parts of GB, we have to afford the Department and the Minister the latitude to bring forward regulations under the provisions that will give the flexibility to ensure that the baby loss scheme is fit for purpose not only now but into the future. When you put something in statute, you have to allow flexibility, and that is what the regulations and parts of clause 11 will bring. I commend the Bill to the House. I am glad to see this day for a number of reasons, not least because it gives recognition to all parents who have lost a child, whether it was stillborn or did not make it through the pregnancy. The loss will be recognised — a loss that nobody has seen or held and one that even grandparents and other family members could not see. It is important to recognise the loss, even if it is just through a baby loss certificate. It will mean something, but it also means that the Assembly, the Minister, the Department and the Committee are listening to the people who have suffered loss, and we acknowledge and register it. It is a good day. I commend the Bill to the House.

695 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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