Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 21:"Page 2, line 21, at end insert—" ““(   )   Subject to subsection (9), in considering whether to make a contact activity direction, the court shall have regard to the desirability of each birth parent assuming their obligations to provide (or procure) for the child the support, care and education which he needs.”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, I should say that I forgot to explain to the House that my noble friend Lady Finlay cannot be here because she has had to go to support her mother due to the death of a relative in France. This is a probing amendment. In the past 20 years the proportion of children born to unmarried parents has increased dramatically. While many unmarried fathers share parental responsibility, as defined in the Children Act, with the mother, it is estimated that more than 1 million do not. These fathers are in a kind of legal limbo. Many accept the full obligation of being a good father, unconscious of the fact that they have no right in relation to their child or its welfare. On the other hand, an increasing number of others consider that to father a large number of children is a macho achievement, and persuade themselves that it is up to the mother and the state to concern themselves with bringing up the child. Setting aside entirely any moral considerations that may or may not be involved, I am concerned about the practical implications of this state of affairs for the welfare, wellbeing and future prospects of an increasingly substantial minority of the nation’s children, and about the increasing cost to the state of assuming the responsibilities of more and more indigent fathers. This uncertainty in the law—and indeed in the shared values of our society—about the responsibilities of unmarried fathers means that children cannot be taught their responsibilities as citizens in this respect in school or elsewhere. Because we are a multicultural society, there are some ethnic groups whose cultures and values relating to parental responsibility are different from ours. How can they learn what it is to be a British citizen if we have no established norm? At the root of the problem that this Bill is designed to address is the increase in the number of children exposed to family breakdown. How can this be reversed if there is fundamental uncertainty in the law about the responsibility of those 1 million citizens who have children but no parental responsibility? So I ask the question: what are the obligations of a citizen who becomes a father, first towards his child, and secondly towards the state? This amendment, like its predecessor in Grand Committee, is a probing amendment to draw the attention of the House to the need to give some clear guidance on the obligations to his child of a father who does not have parental responsibility, and to ask the Government whether they are prepared to clarify the law on the obligations of unmarried fathers; and if not, why not?