Joint Birth Registration: Recording Responsibility
The moment that a child's birth is registered has enormous significance, both practical and symbolic. It is an opportunity for public acknowledgement of the responsibilities of parenthood, where both mother and father can commit to their role in nurturing and supporting their child.
On 2 June 2008, the Department for Children, Schools and Faimilies and the Department for Work and Pensions published the White Paper Joint birth registration: recording responsibility in order to ensure that wherever possible both parents are named on a child's birth certificate.
The measures will continue to protect vulnerable women and children, but will allow mothers to ensure that a father acknowledges their responsibility to their offspring. Equally, they will ensure unmarried fathers will get the right to have a say in their child's life.
