Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000

Section 15: Presumption of parentage in child support cases

160. Most fathers who are non-resident parents acknowledge their children and accept their responsibility to them. In these cases, child support liability can be worked out without any further investigation as to paternity. However, occasionally a man may have good reason to doubt the parent with care’s statement that he is the father of the child in question. And, in some cases, men have contested paternity in order to slow down the process of collecting child maintenance.

161. To allow child support to be worked out without unnecessary delay, the Secretary of State can, in specific circumstances, assume that a man is the father of a child even if he denies it. In these cases, child support liability can only be stopped if the non-resident parent proves in court that he is not in fact the child’s father.

162. In England and Wales, the circumstances in which paternity can be assumed include those where a child was adopted by the man in question and also where there is a court declaration that the man is the child’s father. However, in Scotland, there is also a presumption that a man is the father of a child if he was married to the child’s mother at any time between the date of conception and the child’s birth. This section makes clear that the presumption of paternity arising from marriage, already recognised by the courts in England and Wales, can be applied for child support purposes.

163. A person who is treated as a non-resident parent as a result of these presumptions can challenge his child support liability by applying to court. The provision for such applications is in secondary legislation made under section 45 of the 1991 Act. Section 83 of this Act introduces a new, simplified route specifically for the courts to determine whether or not one person is the parent of another. This will be of general application.

164. This section amends section 26 of the 1991 Act to add four new cases in which child support liability can be worked out on the basis that a person who denies he or she is a parent is in fact the parent of the qualifying child.

• Case A1 allows the Secretary of State to presume that a man is the father of a child living in England and Wales if the man was married to the child’s mother at any time between the date of conception and the child’s birth. This follows the existing presumption in Scottish law.

• Case A2 provides a presumption that a man who is named on the child’s birth certificate is the child’s father even if he was not married to the mother. This will apply also to children registered in Northern Ireland or in Scotland.

• Case A3 enables the Secretary of State to presume parentage if either:

  • the alleged parent has refused to take a DNA test; or

  • the result of a DNA test shows that he is a parent of the child but he refuses to accept it.

• Case B1 provides that the alleged parent may be presumed to be the parent of the child where section 27 or 28 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 applies. These sections relate to children born as a result of fertility treatment or artificial insemination. Section 27 provides that a woman who gives birth as a result of such treatment will be treated as the child’s mother unless the child is adopted. Section 28 provides that a man who is married to a woman who has received such treatment (or a man who is himself taking part in the treatment) will normally be the father of the child in law. This provision does not apply if the man did not consent to the treatment, or where the child is adopted.

The following two sections appear in the Act in Part V: Miscellaneous and Supplemental.