:: :: :: ::

Joint Birth Registration White Paper

An interesting development given the recent bill to remove the need for a father (see The Times Online - Women Win Right to Children without Fathers and discuss in the forum), the government made the following announcement:

"Plans to change the law to require dads, as well as mums to be named on the birth certificate have been announced by Secretary of State for Work James Purnell and Children's Secretary Ed Balls in a joint White Paper. The change, which will be implemented in the next session’s Welfare Reform Bill, will put parental responsibility centre stage by giving mothers or fathers a right to insist that the other parent acknowledges their responsibilities to their child by registering on the birth certificate.

The responsibility to register a new baby for unmarried parents currently lies predominantly with the mother. In England and Wales around 7% of births each year are solely registered by mothers which means every year up to 45,000 children do not have their father named on their birth certificates and today’s announcement intends to address this by 3 key changes to the law:

1. Requirement to joint register..."

Read the full announcement here...