PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY
A mother automatically has parental responsibility for her child from birth.
A father usually has parental responsibility if he’s either:
- married to the child’s mother
- listed on the birth certificate (after a certain date, depending on which part of the UK the child was born in)
Births registered in Northern Ireland:
A father has parental responsibility if he’s married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth.
If a father marries the mother after the child’s birth, he has parental responsibility if he lives in Northern Ireland at the time of the marriage.
An unmarried father has parental responsibility if he’s named, or becomes named, on the child’s birth certificate (from 15 April 2002).