Get copy of birth certificate

I was astonished by the letter headlined, 'BNO left stateless by British Government' (South China Morning Post, May 19), from F. S. Ramsey.

What Mr Ramsey needs to do is to obtain a certified copy of his birth certificate.

Since his letter states that he is 'British by birth', I assume that his place of birth was in the UK.

Therefore he should be able to get a certified copy of his birth certificate either from Somerset House in London, or from the Registry of Births at the place where he was born.

If, as may be the case, he was in fact born in Hong Kong because he says that his mother is/was Chinese, then he should still be able to obtain a copy of his birth certificate from, I believe, the Public Records office. This document should identify the nationality of his Scottish father.

To summarise, wherever one is born, formal records are kept of the birth and it is normally always possible to obtain a certified copy of the birth certificate. However I have to qualify that last sentence by saying that I am not clear as to the extent to which they keep proper records in China if in fact he was born in mainland China.