fbpx

Child’s Birth to Same-Sex Couple Triggers Bureaucratic Tangle

21st October 2022 By Arman Khosravi

No one should be surprised to hear that, when a same-sex couple have a child following lawful IVF treatment, each of them has a right to be registered as the child’s legal parent. However, as a High Court case showed, whilst the law has generally kept pace with social change, the same cannot always be said of bureaucracy.

 

The case concerned an eight-year-old boy who was born to a long-established same-sex couple. His gestational parent was, without difficulty, registered as his mother. However, her partner asserted that she was informed by a local authority registrar that she could not appear on the child’s birth certificate because she was not his father and he could have only one mother.

 

Although the contents of the conversation were disputed, the partner contended that the registrar told her she would need to seek a step-parent adoption order if she wished to have any legal status in relation to the child. Allegedly on the registrar’s advice, she subsequently obtained such an order.

 

After she launched proceedings, the Court noted that the child was born following IVF treatment in a licensed clinic. The partner was therefore, as a matter of fact and law, the child’s second female parent pursuant to Sections 43 and 44 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. She was entitled to be registered as such under Section 10ZA of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953.

 

If the registrar had advised her otherwise, she was manifestly incorrect to do so. Whatever was said during the conversation, it was wrong in law not to identify the partner as the child’s parent on his birth certificate. The end result was that the certificate did not reflect his legal parentage.

 

The Court was entirely satisfied that it was appropriate to issue a formal declaration of parentage in the partner’s favour. In also revoking the adoption order, the Court found that it was based on a mistake and was entirely irregular. Given that she was already the child’s legal parent, there was never any need for such an order. The ruling opened the way for the partner to register the child’s birth afresh, this time officially identifying her as his parent.

 

In conclusion, the Court noted that administrative steps such as the registration of a birth are absolutely fundamental to an individual’s identity, legal status and familial relationships. The seemingly mundane bureaucratic task of correctly registering a birth is a decisively important step with enormous significance for both child and parents.

Source: Concious

Latest News

Tenants Can Purchase Freehold When Landlord Cannot Be Found

11th June, 2024 By

The Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993 gives qualifying leaseholders the right to join together to buy the freehold of their properties – a process known as collective enfranchisement. A recent case demonstrated that this right can be exercised even when the landlord cannot be found. The leaseholders of two flats in a terraced house wished to purchase it from the landlord, but were unable to ascertain his whereabouts and therefore could not serve notice on him under Section 13 of the Act. They therefore applied for an...

Court Refuses to Set Aside Divorce Order Applied for by Mistake

6th June, 2024 By

While the courts have a range of powers to set aside orders, they will only exercise them in limited circumstances. In a somewhat surprising case that has attracted much comment, the High Court declined to set aside a final order of divorce that had been applied for by mistake. A couple separated in January 2023, after more than 21 years of marriage. In October that year, while financial remedy proceedings were still ongoing, the wife's legal representatives inadvertently applied for a final order of divorce in respect of her instead...

Waiting Time for Grants of Probate Falls

3rd June, 2024 By

Following concerns last year about delays in processing probate applications, recent figures from HM Courts and Tribunals Service show that waiting times for grants of probate are continuing to improve. The average time from submission of a probate application to probate being granted fell to 11.3 weeks in March 2024, a decrease from 13.7 weeks in February and 13.8 weeks in January. This is the lowest figure since March 2023, when the average was 10.8 weeks. The longest waiting time since then was in November, at 15.8 weeks: that month,...

Late Appeal Against Tax Penalties Rejected

31st May, 2024 By

It is incumbent on taxpayers to make sure they fully comply with their obligations to file returns and pay any tax due. The point was illustrated by a recent case in which a taxpayer whose return had not been received by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) failed to persuade the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) that he should be permitted to appeal against the resulting penalties. On the evening of 31 January 2014, the man had completed his 2012/13 Income Tax return on HMRC's website. Shortly afterwards he went to Cyprus, and...