Judgment handed down by Court of Appeal in landmark Parental Responsibility cases
25th Mar 2026 | Cases
The Court of Appeal has handed down judgment in Re J, Re M, Re P (Loss of Parental Responsibility) [2026] EWCA Civ 344, three conjoined appeals dealing with legal parentage.
The court considered the impact of a declaration of non-parentage in the case of a man not married to a child’s mother, who is named on the child’s birth certificate but who is subsequently proved not to be the child’s biological father.
The court concluded that the definition of “father” is the common law definition and is limited to a child’s biological/genetic father, and that where an individual is registered as a child’s “father” on the child’s birth certificate, the parental responsibility attributed by such registration does not attach to that individual if they are not, in fact, the biological/genetic father of the child. No parental responsibility is acquired at any stage by an individual who is wrongly registered as “father” on a birth certificate. Parental responsibility probably is acquired, though, if a Parental Responsibility Order had been made, unless or until that Order is set aside.
Reflecting the importance of the case, the court permitted interventions from The Secretary of State for Justice and the Registrar General, Reunite International Child Abduction Centre, and the Association of Lawyers for Children.
Emma Gatland and Alana Hughes acted as junior counsel for the appellant father in Re M, led by Sam Momtaz KC, and instructed by HRS Solicitors.
