Parental Responsibility

Being a child's legal parent does not mean a person is entitled to exercise "all the rights and duties of a parent". In fact, the capacity to make certain decisions depends very much on whether or not that person has "parental responsibility".

It is not true to state that in all situations all parents have parental responsibilities, just as not all those who have parental responsibilities are legal parents. This is illustrated in the fact that an unmarried father will not acquire parental responsibility automatically (unlike the mother who acquires parental responsibility at birth). The unmarried father will have to obtain parental responsibility either by a court order, by entering into formal agreement with the mother or by jointly registering the child's birth with the mother. There is no limit upon the persons who may have parental responsibility for a child despite the fact a child may only have as many as two legal parents.

Early legislation described the relationship between parent and child in terms of "rights". However, in 1989, The Children Act sought to adopt the term "responsibility". This term was seen as more adequate at that time and would reinforce the view described by the Lord Chancellor 1 that "the reason and sole justification for parental status" is "the duty to raise the child to become a properly developed adult both physically and morally".

This terminology emphasised the fact the law sought to move away from the idea of parental "rights" and towards the idea of "responsibilities" as the main element for parental responsibility. It does not however, mean that parental responsibilities do not to a certain extent involve "rights", as parental responsibility continues to be defined by section 3 (1) of the Children Act 1989 as "all the rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and his property". However, this is not to say that parental "rights" and "responsibilities" are incompatible, as today many of the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities found within the Children Act are both child and parent-centred. This means that rights are given to parents to carry out their responsibilities to their children, which also reflect the parent's interests in the way in which their children are brought up.

  1. Lord Chancellor Mackay, (1989) 139 New L.J. 505[^ Return]

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