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Fathers should be registered

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16 June 2007

Every child should have a father named on their birth certificate, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), ahead of Father’s Day tomorrow (Sunday). Last year almost 670,000 children were registered at birth but almost 50,000 were registered without a named father.

At the moment, the birth of a child in England and Wales needs to be registered within 42 days but only one parent needs to register. If the parents are not married, the father must be registered on the birth certificate in order to gain parental responsibility. If the mother does not register the father, he will be listed as 'unknown'.

ippr argues that fathers have a vital role to play in the lives of their children. Evidence shows that when fathers are actively involved in their child’s first weeks they are much more likely to stay closely engaged throughout their child’s life, even if they end up separating from the child’s mother. ippr’s research shows that children with an actively involved father have better behaviour and improved attainment at school. There is also evidence that where fathers play an active role at home there is a knock on effect on the quality and stability of the relationship between parents.

ippr argues that there are also implications for child poverty. At the moment, around half of children in lone parent families live in poverty but only 15 per cent of lone parents on Income Support receive any child support. Just 42,000 lone parents on benefits see any rise in their household income as a result of child maintenance.

Kate Stanley, ippr Head of Social Policy, said:

“Everyone should know who to send a card to on Father’s Day. Most people will be thanking their fathers tomorrow but many will be wondering who their father is and why they have not helped support their family.

“Requiring fathers to be registered on a birth certificate sends an important signal about the duties of parenthood. It communicates the message that fathers have an equal role to mothers and that they must take their responsibilities seriously.”

Notes to Editors

The Government published the Child Support Bill last week but did not include plans to make the registration of fathers compulsory. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, John Hutton, told the Work and Pensions Select Committee in February that he wanted to include these plans in this Bill.

Current legislation imposes a fine of Level 1 on the standard scale (maximum £200) for failure to register a child's birth within 42 days. However, this is virtually never imposed as the aim of the registration process is to get births registered and prosecution of the parents would do little to achieve this. A similar scheme might be used to enforce the requirement to register both parents. However, the Government has given assurances that safeguards would be put in place to ensure exceptions were made for women and children who may be put at risk as a result of naming the father.

The mother of a child - and the father if he is married to the mother - automatically have parental responsibility. Where the parents are not married to each other, the father will acquire parental responsibility if he acts with the mother to have his name recorded in the child's birth registration. An unmarried father can also obtain parental responsibility by later marrying the child's mother, by making a parental responsibility agreement with her, or by getting a court order.

Daddy Dearest: Active fatherhood and public policy edited by Kate Stanley is available to download free.

Contact:

Richard Darlington, ippr media manager, 020 7470 6177 / 07738 320 645 / r.darlington@ippr.org

Matt Jackson, ippr senior media officer, 020 7339 0007 / 07753 719 289 / m.jackson@ippr.org