THE government has moved to address unintended consequences of recent law reforms that would have affected the rights of some unmarried fathers.
Children’s Minister Richard Vibert took action after signing an order on 5 November to introduce four new pieces of legislation around the Children and Civil Status Law.
However, in a report presented to the States Assembly, Mr Vibert said further action had been found to be needed because of an issue around unmarried fathers of children born before 2 December 2016 who may not have full parental responsibility.
The report noted: “The development of this legislation has been highly complex and a substantial piece of work.
“During final preparations, despite extensive prior review, an unforeseen technical legal consequence was identified – this related to the interaction between the parental responsibility provisions for fathers registered prior to the commencement of the 2016 Law and the new legislation to abolish legitimacy.
“Once this issue was identified, urgent work was undertaken to resolve it and to ensure that the removal of legitimacy would not disadvantage unmarried fathers who were registered prior to 2 December 2016.”
The minister presented his proposals to the States Assembly this week and received unanimous support from Members in making the changes to the law.
