Who Is Considered a Parent?
In the United Kingdom, a person is considered a parent if they are the biological parent of a child, or if they have legal parental responsibility for the child.
Biological Parents
Biological parents are the mother and father of a child, as determined by the biological processes of conception and pregnancy. In most cases, the mother is the person who gives birth to the child, and the father is the person who is genetically related to the child.
Legal Parental Responsibility
Legal parental responsibility refers to the legal rights and responsibilities that a person has in relation to a child. In the UK, legal parental responsibility is acquired in several ways. For married parents, both the mother and the father automatically have legal parental responsibility for their child. Unmarried fathers can acquire legal parental responsibility if they are named on the child’s birth certificate and the mother agrees, or if they obtain a parental responsibility order from the court. Other people, such as step-parents or guardians, can acquire legal parental responsibility through a court order or by agreement with the parents.
We also explain how PR affects daily parenting in our article What Is Parental Responsibility?.
Summary
In summary, a person is considered a parent in the UK if they are the biological parent of a child, or if they have legal parental responsibility for the child.
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