Cheating fathers to pay price under UK law
To pay fine if they fail to register themselves on child’s birth certificate
London: Cheating fathers who fail to register themselves on their children’s birth certificates face jail under a new law.
Ministers say joint birth registration is needed to emphasise the importance of both parents having an active role in a child’s upbringing and to address an anomaly in the law.
Fathers who fail to comply will face £200 (Dh1,153) fines, and those who give false answers could be jailed for up to seven years for perjury.
But Labour officials suspect the real motive is to embarrass party leader Ed Miliband, who failed to register himself as the father of his first son, Daniel, when he was born in 2009. Had the new law been in force then, Miliband could have been fined.
“If this is the Tories’ way of scoring cheap points — it is pathetic,” said one Labour aide.
Under existing laws, only the mother’s name needs to be registered, even if an estranged father wants to be involved in a child’s upbringing.
An estimated 50,000 babies are born each year without the biological father’s name on the certificate. It means he loses the right to make decisions about the child’s health, religion or schooling and cannot prevent the child being taken abroad or being put up for adoption.
To ensure all fathers are on their children’s birth certificates, Ministers intend to enforce a new law approved by the last Labour Government in the Welfare Reform Act 2009, but not put into action.
It includes fines for fathers who do not bother to fill in a child’s birth certificate.
Firm guidance
In addition, registrars may be asked to give firm guidance instructing parents of the importance of both their names appearing on the certificate, and warn them they could be prosecuted if they fail to do so.
Miliband came under fire when The Mail on Sunday revealed in October 2010 that he was not registered on Daniel’s birth certificate.
Only the name of Justine, his partner at that time and now his wife, appeared on the certificate.
When second son Samuel was born a month later, the couple took no chances.
They not only registered his birth, they re-registered Daniel.
