What is Parental Responsibility | Parental Responsibility Laws UK

What does parental responsibility mean and who has parental responsibility?

Kelly Grigg, a family lawyer at Richard Nelson LLP, explains what parental responsibility is in the UK and the laws surrounding which parent automatically has parental responsibility. Grigg also outlines how unmarried fathers can acquire parental responsibility.

Richard Nelson LLP is a leading firm for 2021, part of the legal 500. Our family lawyers have been accredited by the Law Society for Family Law and Children Law.

Transcript:

What is parental responsibility?

Section 3 of the Children Act defines Parental Responsibility as “all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property”.

Who has parental responsibility?

A mother of a child will automatically have PR for the child irrespective of her marital status. A father will automatically have PR if he was married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth or subsequently marries the mother of his child.

Otherwise, Unmarried fathers have to acquire PR and this can be done in a number of ways, including:

- Being registered as the Father on the child’s birth certificate
- Entering into a Parental Responsibility Agreement with the child’s mother
- By Court order