Parental responsibility orders and agreements
Parental responsibility is 'all the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and the child's property'.
Mothers, and fathers who are (or were) married to the mother when the child was born or afterwards have this automatically.
Other fathers can obtain it in one of 3 ways:
- By jointly registering (or re-registering the child's birth) after December 1, 2003
- By making a formal agreement a 'parental responsibility agreement' with the mother.
- By obtaining a parental responsibility order from the court.
Where a father who has not got parental responsibility gets a residence order the court will make a parental responsibility order as well.
