2nd June 2008: Unmarried fathers to be on the birth certificate - by law

New laws requiring unmarried fathers names to be on the birth certificate of their children - whether their mother wants this or not - were announced by the Department of Work and Pensions today.

Plans to make sure that wherever possible both mothers and fathers are named on birth certificates, ensuring both parents take full responsibility for their children, were announced by Secretary of State for Work James Purnell and Children's Secretary Ed Balls in a joint White Paper published today.

There will be a new legal requirement in the case of unmarried parents for both mother and father to be recorded in the birth register unless this would be impossible, impracticable, or unreasonable.

Currently there are up to 50,000 children born in England and Wales each year who do not have both parents identified on their birth certificate. It is the Government’s ambition to significantly decrease the number of sole registrations in England and Wales. 

This change will help promote child welfare and parental responsibility. It will give mothers a right to insist that the father acknowledges his responsibilities to his child by registering on the birth certificate.

Equally, it means an unmarried father automatically gets parental responsibility and can have a say in their child’s life with things such as the child’s name, medical decisions, schooling and religion.

The White paper makes a firm commitment that safeguards must be in place to protect vulnerable mothers and children such as in cases of rape or abuse. Sole registrations may take place if the registrar is satisfied that a joint registration would be impossible, impracticable, or unreasonable.

A refusal to register jointly outside of these descriptions will be enforced in the same way as a refusal to register a birth at all. The responsibility to jointly register falls on both parents and so if either parent refuses to register without good reason, and the other parent is willing, that responsibility will fall to them.