'Cos I was married at the time, my name is on my daughter's birth certificate. But that didn't stop her mother running off with someone else and cutting me out of my girl's life -- with the full approval of a family law court! Named fathers must now have reasonable contact and decision rights too.

Francis Fuchs, London,

As a single mother myself I think this new law is a step forward, however what about children that
are now in their teens or mother like myself who as an unwilling father living in a other countries?

sabrina, bexley,

About time too!! The vast majority of fathers want to be involved with their children but in many cases are prevented by the mother. There is endless research which shows that children need a father in their lives if they are going to grow up as rounded grounded adults. Purnell is quite right.

Anthony, Cambridge, UK

two hundred pounds fine - inadequate - do what clinton did - don't name father then benefit cut.

william shepherd, zoeterwoude , netherlands

What is the point of all this nonesense?

If the mother refuses to name the father ( or fathers? ), enforcing the new laws are a complete waste of time.

Why not withdraw benefits?

Why not apply fines?

Why not take the baby into care?

Oh! to be born a woman, in sexist Britain!

hirry ewal, exeter, england

Given the comments so far, the father's place on a birth certificate is less about parental responsibility and more about money.

JD, Bristol,

some relationships break down - some fathers move on and have other families or do not want any responsibility to those they have fathered. it is incredibly painful explaining to a child why a parent doesnt want them, in each case you have to ask if the child is being put first

F C, newcastle upon tyne , uk

D.Thomas
I definitely didn't say that biological parentage was a forced construct, but promoting it over and above anything else BY LAW is to attempt to FORCE a singular view of what constitutes a family, which is just offensive. Do you truly think Government cares who pays so long as they don't?

James, Ulverston, England

They should have done this before they started the CSA and then hopefully it wouldn't have been the disaster it has been.

liz, Frot Myers, USA

Eileen, NY - paranoid much?

Shilley, Glasgow, Scotland

Putting a fathers name on a birth certificate will not ensure contact with the father if he does not want it.

It will certainly increase the already formidable powers of the CSA and will help reduce the government spend on one parent families.
It has little to do with family union.

Davies, London, England

The government needs to do more financially to help those that are in relationships to bring up children. Carrot and the stick. Why is it that all we see from this government is the stick?

Davies, London, England

Surely it is common sense that if it is a law that cannot be enforced, then there is no point in there being such a law.

Or maybe common sense is a quality this government has a distinct shortage of. As has been pointed out, this is mere sound bite politics.

Dave, Newry, Northern Ireland

This is all very well in principle but there are bound to be cases where the mother does not know the father's name at all or just as "Ron" for example - what will they do in those cases. As at least 50% of babies are now born out of wedlock anor new computer system at £k that does not work!

marion marchant, Reigate,

I ask: Once only married fathers got parental responsibility, now unmarried fathers do. Do unmarried mothers have any rights or are they still vulnerable to being dumped and left in the cold with major responsibility for nurture and care of the child while the father battles away for full custody?

nathalie, London,

Good move forward, but I think it is holed below the waterline from the start. If Mothers do not have to give the details of the Father then for a whole variety of reasons (some of them quite justified most of them absolutely not) they may not. If as happens in the family courts. Judges refuse point blank to enforce their own contact orders to parties that are lined up in front of them then why on earth do we think that Registers will do anything to assist in getting Fathers on to the birth certificate when by definition they are highly unlikely to be there

Neil Grice, Families need Fathers , Chelmsford , Essex

i love the article. I am a Canadian, here in Canada, it is illegal to put the father's name on the birth certificate if the parents are not married.you are not even allowed to put the fathers name or any info about him on the form, if you do they send it back demanding corrections.

m napier, edmonton, canada

If women don't want to name the father then that is fine. But deny them any social security benefits and housing. That should sort out the problem. Women have responsibilities as mothers. Some, a minority, will need some arm twisting. Time to get tough to sort out a feckless underclass.

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

I on the other hand did have our daughters father sign her birth certificate 2 weks afterher birth only to then deny paternity when the csa contacted him some 18 mths later after seperating. The gov should clean up the csa! Its a shamble.
society cannot force absent fathers to love their children

audrey, london, england

I applaud the move to ensure that both parents names appear on the child's birth certificate. It is a valuable document describing who the child is, a very separate issue from that of the quality of the relationship between the parents or the parenting.

Anne Evans, Bristol,

To James Ulverston, England
"Children need love and stability in life not a forced construct devised of someone elses idea of what constitutes a family."

Biological parentage is not a forced construct, it is a reality of a child's rearing and has a hugely significant impact on a child's welfare.

David Thomas, Manchester, England

If this new law has the capability to allow denied would-be fathers to log their pending parentage on a national database, it would allow the Registrar to check whenever a mother tries to register a birth claiming father unknown, or trying to palm some other man off as the father. This would be good

David Thomas, Manchester, England

Its about time that some fathers should be made responsible for their offspring....why are so many of the opinion that the govt is trying to avoid payment of benefit....When will people stop expecting everything from the welfare state and start getting their own lives into order.

Gavmate, Hull,

Chris of Brighton, firing my curiosity I checked and, true to form with a lack of govn' t joined up thinking, Purnell voted with the government and rejected the requirement of a male role model re the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill. There are those who see him as a future 'leader' !!

Shirley Bowen, Blackpool, UK

I begged my childs dad to put his name on the birth certificate,
he moved away, changed his mobile phone number and didn't make contact for almost a year.
He wants to re-write history and put his name on now..doesnt want to be seen for what he truely is- a liar, a coward and a selfish man.

Susan Jones, swansea, glamorgan

Eileen,
I never noticed the colour of the models skin. Perhaps the fact that you did, and immediatly decided that the picture represented a split family rather than the happiness of together family says more about your pre-conceived ideas.

louise, uk,

Its nothing to do with child welfare but everything to do with reducing the cost of benefits.

this is OK, but lets be honest about it.

Having a name on a birth certificate is not going to force anyone to do anything other than perhaps pay money assuming the government can manage to make them.

Mike FW, Porth, United Kingdom

Sperm no 19?! The donor will end up paying child maintenance!

Chris, shrewsbury,

This is rubbish, my ex husband is named on my son's birth certificate, but has not contributed nor been in my boy's life. As a result, my son does not know him. The CSA are also useless.

The govenment should be bringing in laws to ensure absent fathers take more responsibilities.

Victoria, London,

Its quite disturbing how easy its is for a person to be duped into marriage to find themselves in teh divorce courts and paying out portions of their of their asssets. The law that says the partner should have half of what isnt theirs just because they were married is antiquated and needs revising.

J.Burbridge, Stratford-upon-Avon, UK

Phill and Maud, bear in mind that "hard cases make bad law" - though clearly the courts must have the powers to allow for these.
That said, with the propensity of governments to produce policies about as "joined-up" as a bomb-blast this will probably necessitate continual revisiting and revision.

David, Bristol, UK

James, Ulverston. From your comments it is abundantly clear that you have no experience of the rampant corruption of the family law industry (Industry as justice has absolutely no relevance to family law machinations). The secrecy means personal political agendas are far more important than children

Peter, England, UK

If a mum names someone she knows as the dad because he has a nice wage and she thinks she can send the CSA in once his name's on the cert then the poor fellow is going to be hounded by a registrar on nothing but the mothers word unless he forks out for a DNA test - and then the mum might dodge it.

Simon Davies, Luton,

Tinkering at the edges. The problem is not that fathers are not wanting to be involved, most do, but that the family law industry completely supports mums using children as a pawn in post separation acrimony, with absolutely no regard for the child's welfare. Family law secrecy is the real problem.

Peter, England, UK

I have a blank space on my birth certificate! I never saw a long version until I ordered one for myself and the lines crossed through the fathers details cut me very deeply.

Neither my father nor I had any say in the matter, just my clueless, selfish and very naive mother .

Lynn, London,

All the mother has to state is that the father is 'unknown'. This law still won't ensure a child's right to a relationship with their father. Nothing will change until this government actually recognises family breakdown and the failure of its secret family courts and child support system.

Steven Gibbs, Staines, UK

Despite reservations here this must on balance be a civilised advance. With the level of "paternity fraud" running as high as at present in "liberated" societies like ours, any means to reduce further confusion is for the best
BUT what is to happen with assisted conceptions via donor eggs or sperm?

L. Long, Great Yarmouth, UK

"However there is little the new law can do if the mother does not want to identify the father"

Seems a bit of a flaw, to me.

John Blackley, Winter Garden, Florida

I'm confused. On the one hand single mothers must declare the names of their children's fathers. On the other, women can adopt, and have IVF, without a father. Are men needed or not?

Ricky, Bakewell, UK

Colleen, life is lived in the grey, not black and white as you see it.

Children need love and stability in life not a forced construct devised of someone elses idea of what constitutes a family.

This is not the governments business and their are already laws to help parents seeking access.

James, Ulverston, England

damn right ........ but i think that a DNA test should be mandatory its proof there and then ..
parent hood should not be false and where a supposed father is paying for a child that isn't his ...is disgraceful
the first thing in a divorce with kids should be a DNA test it should be the law

Rich , heathrow , MIDDX

There is nothing in this. Registrars will get no extra money to enforce this law so the mothers who have always deliberately left the father off the certificate will just continue to do so.

It is no more than sound bite politics.

Peter Ryder, Middlewich, UK

....And what of women whose children are 'fathered' courtesy of a sperm bank? Will the birth certificate simply 'name' the location of the sperm bank or will it refer to specimen X of batch Y????!!!!

Ms Ford, Paris, France

We hear much talk of "single mothers". In fact there are very few of those.
Children abandoned by their fathers, or taken away from their fathers would be a more accurate description.
The taxpayer who cares for their own family should not be burdened by the cost of this.

KW, Bognor Regis, England

Also, EVERYTHING BASICALLY COMES DOWN TO ECONOMICS. The CSA will have a much simpler time extracting money from KNOWN absent fathers, which will reduce the governments need to financially support lone parents. It has nothing to do with child welfare. Open your eyes, people.

James, Ulverston, England

No Phill, the proposals specifically say the law won't apply in extreme cases like rape.

This is a step forward. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has a right to know their parenta.

Currently, a child can be prevented from knowing who their dad is by the mum.

Tom, Cardiff, UK

Did James Purnell (work and pensions secretary) who said ' it is crucial that from the day they are born, both mum and dad recognise the role they play in their child's life' vote that fathers were not needed in the recent debate on human embryos etc? Anyone know?

chris, brighton,

my mum chose not to put my dad's name on my birth certificate for two reasons: as a form of revenge for his adulterous behaviour and also because she was scared he would have the right to see me and maybe take me to his native country. Was it a good decision? god only knows...

maud, london, uk

Thanks for using a picture of a black guy and baby for this story, further cementing in people's minds that black couples never marry (and that this new ruling is a "black thing.") These are the little subconscious things the media does (that nobody bothers to notice) that give us a bad name.

Eileen, NY, London,

It is about time! Too many children are born who do not know who their father is. Mothers who try to pretend that the father is not necessary are cheating their children of the most right every child needs.

The "nanny state" finally has the courage to stand up for what it is preaching.

Colleen Walsh, Hickory Creek, Texas, USA

More interference by the state into peoples personal matters
And what if a victim is raped?
It does happen where the victim will see the pregnancy through.
Will the pen pushers punish the victim for not complying with their laws?

Phill, The Wirral, England

Didn't Parliament just vote against fathers being involved in the case of a lesbian couple? Talk about joined-up government!

Dominic Graham de Montrose, London,