Legislation introduced on Tuesday will allow for integrated birth certificates, meaning people aged 18 and older can update their records to have the names of birth parents, adoptive parents and the date of adoption on a certificate.

Under current law, only adoptive parents are listed on certificates.

The legislation follows a recommendation from the Parliamentary Inquiry into Historical Forced Adoption in Victoria.

The Victorian Registry of Birth, Deaths and Marriages will now begin work to develop integrated certificates, which are expected to be available by late 2023.

A period of at least 12 months after the introduction of the amendments is needed for the registry to make changes for the issuing of integrated birth certificates, which will be legal identity documents, a state government spokeswoman said.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said the government's response fully acknowledged this "shameful" part of Victoria's history.

"We know we can't change the past but we can try to repair the damage caused," she said.

There will be no cost for the issue of an integrated birth certificate.

Charlotte Smith, chief of VANISH, a community organisation helping people affected by past and forced adoption practices, welcomed the legislation, originally recommended by a senate inquiry committee in 2012.

"For many adopted people, the fact that their legal birth certificate shows their adoptive name and the names of their adoptive parents as if they were born to them, represents an erasure of their past and a re-writing of their identity," Ms Smith said.

She said integrated birth certificates would also be welcomed by mothers and fathers affected by forced adoption practices.

"They will at long last be be formally recognised as parents," she said.

"Cancelling and replacing birth certificates were draconian measures put in place when it was considered shameful to have a child outside wedlock, and that secrecy was often imposed upon them by the institutions involved."

Ms Smith added a parliamentary inquiry into historical forced adoption in Victoria, tabled in September, found the rights and needs of adopted people remained unaddressed despite an apology in 2012 and a legislative review in 2017.

The inquiry committee's report recommended the Victorian government implement integrated birth certificates without delay, as well as the introduction of a no-fee, no-fault procedure for applications to discharge an adoption order.

"Sadly, like the redress scheme, this initiative will be too late for some adoptees and natural parents who are no longer with us," Ms Smith said.

Adoptee Kate Buscombe hopes birth names will be kept on adoptees' birth certificates in the future.

The 49-year-old Melbourne woman has breast cancer and said while she was able to connect with her natural mother and attain her family medical history, she may have otherwise faced increased health risks.

"Lots of adoptees don't feel like they have the right to reach out - they're not sure if the natural parents want this," Ms Buscombe told AAP.

Another adoptee, Penny Mackieson, was in March allowed by the Victorian County Court to correct her identity records and integrate her Greek natural mother's name with the one given to her by her adoptive parents on her legal birth certificate.

But the 59-year-old agrees with Ms Buscombe.

"You shouldn't be changing people's birth certificates when they get adopted in the first place," Ms Mackieson told AAP.

The legislation follows the government's announcement in March of a redress scheme for mothers whose babies were removed without their informed consent.

VANISH has called for all 56 recommendations made in September to be implemented.

Australian Associated Press