The Child Abduction Act 1984 makes it a crime for anyone connected with a child under the age of 16 to take or send that child out of the United Kingdom without appropriate consent.
In general, a child's father has automatic parental responsibility only if he is or has been married to the child's mother. However, since 15 April 2002 in Northern Ireland, and 1 December 2003 in England and Wales and 4 May 2006 in Scotland, a father also has parental responsibility if he jointly registers the birth with the child’s mother. He may also be granted parental responsibility by the court.
A person with a residence order may take or send the child out of the United Kingdom without consent for up to a month at a time.
A residence order is issued under Section 8 of the Children’s Act 1989. It confirms who a child is to live with. The person named in the order automatically gets parental responsibility if they did not already have it, but not sole parental responsibility.
This means they cannot take the child out of the country for more than one month or change the child’s name without the consent of everyone with parental responsibility or a court order.
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