Who has parental responsibility?

What does parental responsibility mean for a child's name?#

Section 3 of the Children Act 1989 defines parental responsibility broadly: every right, duty, power, responsibility and authority that the law gives a parent in relation to a child and the child's property. Two items on GOV.UK's list of what it covers concern names: choosing the child's name in the first place, and agreeing to any later change.

It is not the same as being a parent. A father without it is still the child's father, and GOV.UK says a parent must support a child financially either way. What he lacks is the right to be asked before decisions such as a change of name.

Who has it automatically?#

The birth mother has it automatically, and that includes a surrogate until legal parenthood is transferred to the intended parents.

A father married to the mother when the child was born, or in a civil partnership with her, has it too. GOV.UK adds that a biological father gets it automatically if he marries the mother, or forms a civil partnership with her, after the birth.

An unmarried father on the birth register has it in England and Wales if he was registered as the father on or after 1 December 2003, whether when the birth was first registered or at a later re-registration. The Adoption and Children Act 2002 opened this route from that date and gives nothing to a father registered earlier; he needs an agreement or a court order.

A second female parent, the child's legal parent alongside the birth mother after fertility treatment, has it automatically if she was married to or in a civil partnership with the mother and consented to the treatment, GOV.UK says. Otherwise she has the same routes as an unmarried father.

More than two people can hold parental responsibility at once, and someone who gains it later takes nothing from those who already have it.

Is it different in Scotland and Northern Ireland?#

The principles match; the dates do not. Scots law calls it parental responsibilities and rights.

HM Passport Office's guidance to its staff uses the same three dates when it checks who can consent for a child.

How can a father, step-parent or second parent get it?#

• By agreement. If the mother agrees, she and the father or second female parent sign form C(PRA1). A step-parent uses form C(PRA2) with the parent they are married to or in a civil partnership with, and with the other parent too if that parent has parental responsibility. A court official witnesses the signatures at a family court (the form's notes say a solicitor cannot), and the agreement counts only from the moment the Central Family Court records it.
• By court order. A father, step-parent or second female parent can apply on form C1. GOV.UK gives the fee as £270; people on a low income or benefits may get help with it.
• Through a child arrangements order. If a court names a father as someone the child is to live with, the Children Act 1989 obliges it to make a parental responsibility order for him too. Anyone else named as a person the child lives with, a grandparent for example, has it while that part of the order lasts.
• By appointment or adoption. Guardians appointed after a parent's death, special guardians and adoptive parents have it, and a local authority shares it under a care order.

Marriage to the child's parent is not enough on its own: GOV.UK says step-parents do not get parental responsibility automatically.

Why does everyone who has it need to agree to a new name?#

In everyday matters one holder can act alone: section 2(7) of the Children Act 1989 allows it, and GOV.UK says routine decisions do not always need the other parent's consent. A name is not routine. For a child's name, GOV.UK requires either that everyone who holds parental responsibility agrees or that a court orders the change, and it expects you to try to reach agreement before going to court.

Mr Justice Cobb put the law this way in the High Court in 2017: where two or more people have parental responsibility, one of them "can only lawfully cause a change of surname if all other people having parental responsibility consent or agree, or the court otherwise orders". HM Passport Office applies the same rule to any change to a child's name, down to a spelling or a hyphen.

It cuts both ways. Where only one person holds parental responsibility, their decision is enough, a principle a 2024 High Court judgment restates. A father without it has no veto over a deed poll, but as a parent he is entitled under section 10 of the Act to ask the family court for an order about the child, and the judge would ask what is best for the child. When holders disagree, the family court can settle the question with a specific issue order, and how a court decides a child's name explains what the judge weighs.

How do I prove who has parental responsibility?#

The notes to the court's step-parent agreement form list the documents that show it:

• the full birth certificate, together with the parents' marriage or civil partnership certificate if they were married or civil partners at the birth or afterwards;
• for a birth registered from 1 December 2003, the full birth certificate showing a joint registration;
• a registered parental responsibility agreement;
• a court order granting parental responsibility.

Three points catch people out. Divorce, separation and lack of contact do not end it; HM Passport Office's guidance says only a court can remove it. A name on a birth certificate is not proof on its own, because a father registered before his nation's date did not gain it that way. And re-registering a birth to take a parent off it does not, by itself, end their parental responsibility.

If someone objects to a child's change of name and says they hold it, HM Passport Office gives them a month to prove it. If you are unsure who holds it for your child, settle that before anyone signs a deed poll. Citizens Advice or a family solicitor can help, and GOV.UK has a page on how to find legal advice.