Do I need anyone’s permission to take my child abroad on holiday?

If you want to take your child on holiday, you need the consent of anyone else who has parental responsibility for your child.

The following people have parental responsibility for a child under the law of England and Wales:

a) Mothers automatically have parental responsibility for a child at the time of a child’s birth. 

b) Fathers have parental responsibility if;

1. They were married to / in a civil partnership with the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth. 
2. If they are registered as the child’s father on their birth certificate.
3. If they have entered into a parental responsibility agreement with the mother.
4. If they have a court order. 

c) A second female parent will have parental responsibility if they were married to, or in a civil partnership with, the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth, or if the agreed female parenthood conditions under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 apply. Alternatively, a second female parent may acquire parental responsibility after a child’s birth in a similar way to unmarried fathers.

Other individuals can acquire parental responsibility by obtaining a court order. 

The exception is that if a parent or a person with parental responsibility has a court order confirming that the child ‘lives with’ them (a Child Arrangements Order), they may be entitled to remove the child from England and Wales for up to 28 days without the consent of any other holder of parental responsibility provided that a court order does not direct that the other holder of parental responsibility should be caring for the child during the given 28 days. 

If you wish to move abroad with your child, you will need the consent of anyone else with parental responsibility for your child, or a court order authorising the child’s relocation overseas. 

If you leave England and Wales with your child without obtaining this authorisation, the child’s other parent may bring court proceedings for your child’s return.

It can also be a criminal offence in England and Wales to take a child out of the UK without the ‘appropriate consent’ under the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1984. 

If you wish to explore relocating overseas with your child, please contact a member of our team for further information. 

• Act quickly.
• If you have your childʼs passport(s) then keep it in a safe place where the potential abductor will not be able to find or access it. If you do not have your childʼs passport(s), if possible, try and get it and keep it in a safe place.
• Contact the police to report the abduction as soon as possible. The police may be able to put in place a Port Alert which may prevent your child from being removed from England and Wales if they have not already left.
• Seek specialist legal advice immediately. It is important that you consult a specialist family lawyer with experience of international child abduction cases. We have extensive experience of international child abduction cases and one of our team will be available to help you on an urgent basis, including making an urgent application to court to prevent the abduction and to locate the child and/or compelling the surrender of your child’s passport where appropriate.

• Act quickly.
• Contact the police to report the abduction as soon as possible. 
• Seek specialist legal advice immediately. It is important that you consult a specialist family lawyer with experience of international child abduction cases. We have extensive experience of international child abduction cases and one of our team will be available to help you on an urgent basis, including making an urgent application to court for orders to locate the child and/or secure the child’s return where appropriate. 
• If your child has been brought to England and Wales from another country, contact one of our team to explore your legal options for achieving the return of your child. 

This may be a ‘wrongful retention’. A wrongful retention refers to a situation where a child is kept in another country beyond the period agreed by the other parent. 

If the country your child has been retained in, and the country they have been retained away from, are both signed up to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction, then you can use the Convention to make an application for the return of your child. 

The Convention is based on a presumption that it will usually be in a child’s best interests that they be returned promptly to their home country so that the courts in the country where the child usually lives can decide issues relating to their future care.

If your child has been retained in a non-Hague Convention country then you can apply to the English court for orders to secure the return of your child and then seek to enforce them in the country where your child is currently located to achieve their return.

Please contact our team for urgent advice. It may be that your child’s other parent will bring court proceedings and seek the child’s return. We can advise on the steps you can take to strengthen your position and on whether you can defend the proceedings, and we can assist with preparing your case and advising on your options.  

If your child has been abducted from to a non-Hague Convention country, then you can apply to the English court for orders to secure the return of your child and then seek to enforce them in the country where your child is currently located to achieve their return. We have a wealth of experience in these cases, including in obtaining a wide range of measures which might be taken to secure a child’s return from a non-Hague Convention State.

We accept child abduction cases on a privately paying and legally aided basis. We can guide you to assess your eligibility for legal aid and represent you on a legally aided basis if you are eligible. 

Mediation can often give rise to the best outcome for a child, without having to go through stressful and difficult court proceedings. Our team includes qualified mediators with specific international experience who can assist in international child abduction cases. 

Mediation is a voluntary process that offers parents the opportunity to meet together with an independent and neutral mediator who will help them to identify the issues they wish to resolve and then reach solutions.

Mediation is not appropriate where there is a real risk that, if alerted to what is proposed, the potential abductor will accelerate their plans to abduct the child. In this situation, mediation may be appropriate once steps have been taken to secure the child’s presence in this jurisdiction.