Child custody in the United Kingdom

Both parents have parental responsibility if they are married to each other at the time of the birth, and keep it after divorce.

The mother has it automatically. The father has it if he is named on the birth certificate (jointly registered), or if the parents sign a parental responsibility agreement, or if the court gives it to him.

The unmarried father, in one line: The mother has it; the father needs a step: a joint declaration, registration, agreement, or living with the mother at the birth.

Both parents keep parental responsibility. The court gets involved only if the parents cannot agree, and it puts the child's welfare first. It starts from a presumption that the child's welfare is furthered by the involvement of both parents, unless that would put the child at risk, but there is no presumption of equal time. The court makes an order about who the child lives with and spends time with.

The court looks at the child's wishes and feelings, usually through a report by a family court adviser. There is no fixed age.

A parent who has a child arrangements order saying the child lives with them can take the child abroad for up to a month without the other's consent. Otherwise, a longer stay or a move abroad needs the consent of everyone with parental responsibility or the court's permission.

The United Kingdom is a party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention, which lets a parent ask for a child wrongly taken to another country to be returned. It works only with countries that have accepted its accession, so check the other country on the treaty status table.

• The United Kingdom has three legal systems. This entry describes England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules, including different dates from which an unmarried father has responsibility.

The United Kingdom belongs to the Common law family. Family law grows out of the legal tradition, so it helps to know how the system works.

Read the United Kingdom legal-system profile in the Legal Families Atlas →
Who owns what in a marriage in the United Kingdom? →
Divorce rate and trend in the United Kingdom →

• GOV.UK: parental rights and responsibilities