By Tom AtkinsonPart of: How to apply for Parental Responsibility
Adding a father to a birth certificate in the UK takes one of two routes, and a father cannot do either on his own: if the mother agrees, the birth is re-registered on Form GRO 185, which is free; if she does not, he applies to the family court for a declaration of parentage on Form C63, which costs £426. A new certificate is £12.50 either way. The court route puts your name on the certificate but does not give you parental responsibility.
This guide is about England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland register births under their own rules and different forms apply.
Written by Tom Atkinson. Legally reviewed by Hannah Overton, Complex Children Specialist at Kabir Family Law.
Key takeaways
- A father cannot add his own name. He needs her agreement — in person at the register office, or in a signed statutory declaration — or a court order.
- If she agrees: re-register on Form GRO 185. Free. A new certificate is £12.50 and arrives four days after you order it — it is not sent out automatically.
- If she refuses: apply for a declaration of parentage on Form C63. £426, in force 13 July 2026. Help with Fees may reduce or remove it.
- If she disputes that you are the father it is two applications, not one: Form C63 at £426, then a parental responsibility order on Form C1 at a further £270, plus £12.50 for the certificate — £708.50 in total.
- Registration gives parental responsibility only where it happened on or after 1 December 2003. The date attaches to the registration, not to your child’s birth.
- A DNA test is evidence for a court. It is not a way into the register office, and the General Register Office will not re-register on a foreign court order, and a court here will normally direct its own accredited test rather than rely on one taken abroad.
Many fathers are in the unfortunate circumstances where their name does not appear on the child’s birth certificate. The consequences of this is that a father does not automatically acquire parental responsibility unless certain conditions are met, such as being married to the mother at the time of the baby’s birth or being named on the birth certificate. Without parental responsibility, if a father is not named on the birth certificate, he will not automatically have legal rights or responsibilities towards the child unless the mother allows this. Where a father is registered on the birth certificate by one of the routes listed in section 4(1A) of the Children Act 1989, and the registration took place on or after 1 December 2003, he acquires parental responsibility. That gives him a say in key decisions about the child, including medical treatment, schooling and travel.
Where the parents are unmarried, the father is normally named only if both parents register the birth together. He can also be named without the mother attending if she has made a statutory declaration acknowledging him, or if he produces a qualifying court order or parental responsibility agreement.
Without the father’s name on the birth certificate a mother could allow a child to live with the father but she will have the right to demand the child to be returned back to her at any time. Therefore many fathers ask not only “can a father put himself on the birth certificate?” but also what happens if the mother refuses or is no longer in contact.
How to add a father to a birth certificate in the UK
To add a father to a birth certificate you need her agreement — given in person at the register office, or in a statutory declaration she signs — or a court order. Which one applies to you turns on three facts: whether the birth has been registered yet, whether you were married to the mother when it was registered, and whether she will agree to re-register it now. A birth must be registered within 42 days (Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, s.2), and if you are not there when it is, your name will not be on it unless she has signed a statutory declaration naming you. GOV.UK’s own guide to adding a father’s name to a birth certificate sets out which form goes with which situation; what it does not tell you is which of the two routes you are on, or what each one leaves you holding at the end.
What almost every other page leaves out is that getting your name on the certificate and getting a legal say over your child are two separate events. On one route they happen together. On the other they do not — and finding that out after you have paid is what costs fathers a second year.
| Mother agrees | Mother does not agree | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | The birth is re-registered so the father’s details are added | The court declares who the parent is, then the Registrar General is notified and the birth is re-registered |
| Legal basis | Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, s.10A | Family Law Act 1986, s.55A, then s.14A of the 1953 Act |
| Form | Form GRO 185 | Form C63 to the family court |
| Cost | Free. A new certificate is £12.50 | £426 court fee. A new certificate is £12.50 |
| Evidence needed | Both parents attend together, or a statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage, or a listed court order or parental responsibility agreement | Whatever the court requires, commonly an accredited DNA test |
| Parental responsibility? | Yes — re-registration by agreement is under s.10A(1)(a)–(c), which section 4(1A) lists, so long as it is on or after 1 December 2003 | No. Re-registration under s.14A is not a listed route. A separate agreement or court order is needed |
Re-registering by agreement, step by step
- Both parents complete Form GRO 185 and sign it.
- A form on its own is not enough. The General Register Office’s own guidance on applying says a re-registration is made at a register office by both parents together, or by one parent carrying a statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage signed by the other, or by one parent carrying a qualifying UK court order or parental responsibility agreement. A completed form with nobody attending is not a route.
- If you are both going: contact the register office you both want to use, tell them the form is completed, and follow the instructions they give you. GOV.UK sets out no postal alternative for this one.
- If only one of you can go: the other completes a statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage, Form 16, in front of someone authorised to take oaths — a commissioner for oaths, a notary public or a magistrate, for example. Then you have a choice: attend the register office with the Form 16, or post both forms to the General Register Office. Anything you post has to be an original; a register office can certify copies of a court order or agreement so that you keep yours.
- The birth is re-registered. There is no fee for this.
- Order the new certificate separately — £12.50, sent four days after you apply. It does not come automatically.
- Check the date: if the re-registration is on or after 1 December 2003, it gives the father parental responsibility.
Re-registration is a route for unmarried parents. Where the parents were married when the birth was registered, the father’s details go on the certificate as of right and the question does not arise.
The new certificate is a separate job from the re-registration, and people forget it. You order it yourself: £12.50, sent four days after you apply. Without the GRO index reference number it is £3.50 more per search and fifteen working days.
One warning, because it is the most commonly wasted month on this route: a DNA test is not a way into re-registration. The General Register Office accepts joint attendance, a statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage signed by the mother, or one of the listed UK court orders or a parental responsibility agreement. That is the whole list. A DNA test is evidence for a court.
Which route are you on? Answer two questions.
| Route | Form | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Not registered yet: register together | No form | Free |
| Re-register by agreement | Form GRO 185 | Free, certificate £12.50 |
| Court route | Form C63 | £426 |
Which row is yours turns on two things: whether the birth has been registered, and whether she will name you.
Register together. You both attend within 42 days and your name goes on with hers. Timing is what goes wrong. Book the free consultation
Court route. She may register alone and need not name you. The gap you are waiting out becomes her best point. Book the free consultation
Re-register by agreement. Form GRO 185 is free, the certificate £12.50, and it is the route most often got wrong. Book the free consultation
Court route. A declaration of parentage on Form C63, £426, then re-registration — then a second application. Book the free consultation
Two of these three give you parental responsibility. The court route does not — that is a second application.
What it costs to add a father to a birth certificate
| What you pay for | Cost | When |
|---|---|---|
| Re-registration on Form GRO 185 | Free | Mother agrees |
| Declaration of parentage, Form C63 | £426 | Mother refuses (fee in force 13 July 2026) |
| Parental responsibility order, Form C1 | £270 | Only needed after the court route |
| New birth certificate, with the GRO index reference | £12.50 | Either route; sent four days after you order it |
| New birth certificate, without the index reference | £12.50 plus £3.50 per search | Adds fifteen working days |
| Court route, paternity disputed | £708.50 | C63 + C1 + certificate |
| Court route, paternity accepted | £282.50 | C1 + certificate |
Mother not putting father on birth certificate: what to do when she refuses
Where the mother is refusing to put the father on the birth certificate, you cannot overrule her at the register office. The registrar has no power to help you, however unfair that is. The route is the family court.
Ask once more, in writing
Before anything else, ask again in writing and keep the reply. Sometimes a refusal is not about the certificate at all — it is a row about something else, and it moves. Sometimes it is a genuine dispute about whether you are the father, which needs a different answer entirely. Telling those two apart in the first fortnight decides whether you are heading for a conversation or a contested hearing, and it is the cheapest fortnight you will ever spend on this.
If she still says no: a declaration of parentage
The court order to put a father on a birth certificate is called a declaration of parentage — an order under section 55A of the Family Law Act 1986 deciding who the child’s father is; once it is made, the court notifies the General Register Office and the birth is re-registered. Our full guide to the application, the evidence and the timetable is here.
The fee is £426, in force 13 July 2026, and Help with Fees can reduce or remove it. The court has jurisdiction if either you or your child is domiciled in England and Wales on the date of the application, or has been habitually resident here throughout the year ending on that date. The court will want evidence, and in practice that means a court-directed DNA test from an accredited provider with a chain of custody — a kit you bought online will not do. Where the mother or the child refuses a directed test, the court may draw adverse inferences from that refusal.
The trap nobody warns you about. Winning the declaration does not give you parental responsibility, and neither does the re-registration that follows it — that happens under section 14A of the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, and section 14A is not one of the provisions listed in section 4(1A) of the Children Act 1989. You end up named on the certificate with no more legal say than you had the day before. The fix is a second application: a parental responsibility order on Form C1, a further £270 under the Children Act fee. Anyone who tells you the declaration does both is half right and wholly misleading.
What it costs to get it wrong
File the C63 on its own and you will win a certificate and still not be able to see a school report. Then you pay the £270 and wait again for the order that should have gone in alongside it. The two applications can usually be issued together; whether they should be in your case depends on what you are asking the court to decide, and that is the decision worth taking advice on before you spend anything.
Father not on the birth certificate: what you can still do
If you are not named, you almost certainly have no parental responsibility — and that, not the certificate itself, is what is actually costing you. It means no legal say in schooling, medical treatment, religion or travel, and no obligation on her to tell you when any of those decisions is being made. You can be paying maintenance every month and still find out where your child is going to school after the place has been accepted.
What you can do without her agreement is more than most fathers are told. You can apply to the family court for a parental responsibility order on Form C1, or for a child arrangements order setting out when your child lives with and spends time with you, or for both in one application — and the court does not require you to be named on the birth certificate to make either application. Being unnamed is a fact about the register, not a bar to the court. What a father in that position can and cannot do is set out in full in our guide to what rights a father has to see his child.
Waiting is not neutral, and this is the part nobody tells you. The longer you are neither named nor on an order, the more the arrangement you are living with starts to look like the settled one — and a delay you never chose gets handed back to you, in your child’s name, as the reason not to change it. That is an argument to get in front of rather than answer later. The free consultation costs nothing and is where you find out which application your case actually needs, whether the two should be issued together, and what the court will want to see from you: book the free consultation.
Can a father put himself on the birth certificate without consent of the mother?
Not at the register office, no. Without her agreement a registrar cannot add you, and she is not obliged to name you when she registers the birth on her own.
There is one narrow exception, and it is worth knowing because it saves a court application: you can be registered without the mother attending if she has signed a statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage, or if you produce one of the listed UK court orders or a parental responsibility agreement. She still has to have agreed at some point — she just does not have to stand next to you at the counter.
If she has agreed to none of it, the answer is the court: a declaration of parentage, and then re-registration once the order is made. That is the route set out above, and it is the only one.
Putting a non-biological father on a birth certificate
Only the child’s legal father can be named. Re-registration exists to add the natural father’s details — that is what Form GRO 185 is for — so a partner or step-father cannot be put on simply because both parents would like him to be.
A man who is not the biological father is the legal father only in limited situations: most often where the child was conceived through licensed fertility treatment and the conditions in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 are met, or where he has adopted the child. Outside those, he is not the father for registration purposes however long he has been there.
It also matters that this is not a paperwork question. Wilfully giving a registrar false information about a birth is a criminal offence under section 4 of the Perjury Act 1911, and an entry made on a false basis can be challenged years later, usually at the worst possible moment for the child. Where that has already happened, the process runs in the other direction: see our guide to removing a name from a birth certificate.
If what you actually want is for a step-parent to have legal standing — to sign school and medical forms, to be treated as a parent — the certificate is the wrong tool. The routes are a step-parent parental responsibility order, a child arrangements order, or adoption, and they do not all have the same effect on the biological father’s position. Which one fits is exactly the sort of thing to settle in the free consultation rather than after the fact.
Does being on the birth certificate give a father parental responsibility?
Usually, yes — but not always, and the exceptions matter. Being named on the certificate and holding parental responsibility are two different things created by two different statutes. Registration is one of three ways to acquire parental responsibility under section 4(1) of the Children Act 1989: being registered as the father, a parental responsibility agreement with the mother, or a parental responsibility order from the court.
Two situations catch fathers out. The first is timing: registration before 1 December 2003 gives no parental responsibility. The second is the route used — section 4(1A) lists the registration provisions that count, and a re-registration made under section 14A after a declaration of parentage is not among them. A father in either position is named on the certificate and still has no parental responsibility.
It runs the other way too. A father married to the mother at the time of the birth has parental responsibility whether or not he is named, and a father with a parental responsibility agreement or order has it regardless of the certificate. And once acquired, it is durable: under section 4(2A) a person who has parental responsibility “shall cease to have that responsibility only if the court so orders”. Correcting or removing a name from a birth certificate does not by itself take it away.
Without parental responsibility a father has no automatic say in schooling, medical treatment, religion or travel, and the mother may make those decisions alone. That is why the certificate matters — but it is also why checking which route put you on it matters just as much. If a school, GP or airline asks you to show that you hold it, see our guide to proof of parental responsibility.
Pros and cons of putting the father on a birth certificate
For the father, being named is normally what gives parental responsibility — a legal say in schooling, medical treatment, religion and travel. For the mother, the same act means those decisions stop being hers alone. Both are true at once, which is why this is rarely a simple conversation.
What the father gains. Schools, GPs and the passport office have to deal with you rather than treat you as a visitor. Your child’s paperwork records who her father is, which may matter to her at sixteen even if it does not now. And if things end badly, you start from a position the law already recognises.
What the mother gives up. Sole control of the big decisions. She will need his agreement for things she can currently do alone — changing the child’s surname, taking her abroad for more than a month, moving her school. That is a real loss of freedom, and a mother who hesitates over it is not necessarily being obstructive.
What it changes for neither of you. Child maintenance is owed either way, and being named does not decide where the child lives or how much time she spends with each parent. That is a separate question, and a separate application.
Is it illegal not to put the father on a birth certificate?
No. Where the parents are not married or civil partners, the mother may register the birth on her own and is not required to name the father. There is no offence and no penalty, and it does not have to be settled at the time.
His name can be added later — by re-registration if she agrees, or after a declaration of parentage if she does not. Where the parents are married, both sets of details go on the certificate and either parent can register the birth alone. And if a genuine mistake was made at registration, it can be corrected without any legal consequence to anyone.
Frequently asked questions
What can a dad do if he is not on the birth certificate?
A dad who is not on the birth certificate has two options, and which one applies depends on the mother. Ask her to re-register the birth with you on Form GRO 185, which is free. If she will not, apply to the family court for a declaration of parentage on Form C63 (£426). Either way, check separately whether you have parental responsibility — you may need a parental responsibility agreement or order as well.
How much does it cost to add a father to a birth certificate?
Re-registering on Form GRO 185 is free, but a new certificate costs £12.50 and is sent four days after you apply. If she disputes that you are the father, the declaration of parentage on Form C63 is £426 (in force 13 July 2026), and you will usually need a second application for a parental responsibility order at a further £270 — £708.50 in total. If she does not dispute it and simply will not co-operate, you may not need the C63 at all: a parental responsibility order on Form C1 (£270) is itself one of the documents a register office will re-register on, so the cost can be £282.50. Help with Fees can reduce or remove the court fees.
Do both parents have to go to the register office to add the father?
Not always. GOV.UK sets out three ways a re-registration can be made: both parents attending the register office together, one parent attending with a statutory declaration of acknowledgement of parentage (Form 16) signed by the other, or one parent attending with a qualifying UK court order or parental responsibility agreement. Where only one of you can attend, Form GRO 185 and the Form 16 can either be posted to the General Register Office or handed in at your local register office to be forwarded.
Does a father have to pay child maintenance if he is not on the birth certificate?
Yes, if he is the child’s legal parent. Child maintenance follows legal parentage, not the birth certificate: the Child Support Act 1991, s.54 defines a parent as any person who is in law the mother or father of the child. Being left off the certificate does not remove the liability, and being added to it does not create one.
Is there a time limit to add a father to a birth certificate?
Not in the ordinary case. GOV.UK sets no deadline for re-registering a birth on Form GRO 185 to add the natural father’s details, so where the mother agrees it can be done at any time. There is one exception: where the parents marry or form a civil partnership after the birth, section 9 of the Legitimacy Act 1976 makes it their duty to give the Registrar General the information for re-registration within three months of the marriage or civil partnership.
Can I change my child’s surname at the same time as adding the father?
No — they are two separate processes. Re-registering on Form GRO 185 adds the father’s details to the birth record; it does not change the child’s surname. A surname change needs the agreement of everyone who holds parental responsibility, or a specific issue order from the family court if they will not agree. The order you do them in is what catches people out: a father who is not yet named usually has no parental responsibility — unless he was married to the mother when the birth was registered, or already holds an agreement or order — so he has no say in a surname change, and the moment the re-registration goes through, he does. Our guide to changing a child’s name in England and Wales sets out the deed poll route.
Can a father’s parental rights be removed?
Parental responsibility can only be ended by a court, and only in serious cases judged on the child’s welfare. It is not ended by separation, by a lack of contact, or by removing a name from a birth certificate.
Can a father be added to a birth certificate without the mother being present?
Yes, in limited circumstances. The father can be registered without the mother attending if he produces a statutory declaration from her acknowledging him as the father, or a qualifying court order or parental responsibility agreement. Without one of those, the registrar cannot add him.
Before you spend anything, find out which route you are actually on
When your name is missing from your child’s birth certificate it can feel as though the law does not recognise you as a parent at all — while you are there, doing the school run and trying to do the right thing. It is a paperwork problem with a legal fix, and the fix is not complicated. It is just easy to buy the wrong half of it.
There are four ways to lose months here and every one is avoidable: filing the C63 on its own and having to pay again for the order that should have gone in with it; relying on a DNA kit you ordered online, which the court will not look at; bringing an order or a test from another country, which the General Register Office will not register; or waiting to see whether she changes her mind, while the gap in your child’s life quietly becomes somebody else’s best point.
She has said no. That is not the end of it — it is the beginning of a declaration of parentage. We assist and advise fathers on re-registrations, declarations of parentage and parental responsibility applications, and the free consultation tells you what evidence you need before you spend anything, and whether your two applications should go in together. Twenty minutes, no charge, no obligation. Call 0330 094 5880 or ask us to call you back.
