An unmarried father who was not registered on his children’s birth certificates seeks parental responsibilities and rights. The court grants them, but only to a limited extent, and treats each child separately.
Smith (A Pseudonym) v Michael (A Pseudonym) [2026] SC GLA 95 (Glasgow Sheriff Court, 3 June 2026). Both party names in this case are pseudonyms assigned by the court; they are not the real names of the parties.
Background
The parties are the parents of two children, a girl aged six and a boy aged four. The pursuer is not named as the father on either birth certificate. Both children have lived with the defender since birth. The younger child has a diagnosis of Global Developmental Delay and is being assessed for autism.
Why the birth certificate mattered
Under section 3(1)(b)(ii) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, an unmarried father acquires parental responsibilities and rights if he is registered as the child’s father under the enactments listed in subsection (1A), which are provisions of the Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965. Each of those provisions requires the mother’s involvement in the registration.
The sheriff addressed and rejected a misconception that arose in the case: being added to a birth certificate is not itself the route to parental responsibilities and rights in these circumstances. Where registration has not happened with the mother’s involvement, the father’s remedy is an application to the court.
The decision
The sheriff granted parental responsibilities and rights, but deliberately narrowly: the responsibility and right to have contact as provided for in the order, and the right to act as legal representative for the limited purpose of obtaining the children’s health and education records from professionals and schools.
Contact was decided child by child rather than as a single package. Direct contact with the elder child was held not to be in her best interests at this time, and instead indirect contact was ordered under section 11(2)(d) of the 1995 Act: a birthday card and present, a Christmas card and present, and up to four further letters or cards a year, to be passed on through the father’s direct contact with his son. The younger child was to have weekly direct contact with his father.
The sheriff also made an order of her own accord permitting the mother to take the children abroad on holiday without the father’s consent, provided advance notice is given, because such trips would affect his contact with the younger child.
The sheriff observed that neither party had obtained what they wanted.
What it means in practice
Three points are worth carrying away. An unmarried father who is not on the birth certificate is not without remedy, but he must apply to the court rather than assume registration will follow. Parental responsibilities and rights are not all-or-nothing: a court can confer them for defined purposes, such as access to school and medical records, without conferring the whole bundle. And siblings are not a single unit, so an outcome that gives one child weekly direct contact and the other only cards and letters is not a contradiction but an application of the welfare test to each child.
Our pages on parental rights and responsibilities and child contact in Scotland explain how these applications are made.