Children and the family courts

Page 6 of 11

About Parental Responsibility

What is 'parental responsibility'?

The Children Act says what parental responsibility is and who has it. If you have 'parental responsibility' you have all the duties, rights and authority, which, by law, a mother or father has for their child. The list below will help you decide if you have parental responsibility.

The list will also show you that some fathers may not have parental responsibility, and someone who is not a parent may have parental responsibility, if a court makes an order which gives it to them.

You have parental responsibility if:

• you are the child's mother
• you hold a custody order or residence order for the child
• you hold an emergency protection order for the child
• you are a guardian of the child
• you have adopted the child
• you are the child's father and you were married to the child's mother when the child was born
• you are the child's father and you were not married to the child's mother when the child was born but:
  you now have a residence order
  or you now have a Parental Responsibility Order
  or you have made a Parental Responsibility Agreement with the child's mother
  or you have since married the child's mother
  or you have, since 1st December 2003, registered as the child's father under paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) of sections 10(1) or 10A(1) of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 or the corresponding law in Scotland or Northern Ireland.