Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Parental Responsibility Agreement (Amendment) Regulations 2009 and shall come into force on the 1st September 2009.

Amendments to the Parental Responsibility Agreement Regulations 1991

2. The Parental Responsibility Agreement Regulations 1991(2) are amended in accordance with regulations 3 and 4.

3. In regulation 2–

(a) at the end of paragraph (a) omit "and";

(b) for the full stop at the end of paragraph (b) substitute "; and"; and

(c) after paragraph (b) insert–

"(c) under section 4ZA(1)(b) of that Act (acquisition of parental responsibility by second female parent) shall be made in Form C(PRA3) set out in that Schedule.".

4. For the Schedule to the Parental Responsibility Agreement Regulations 1991 substitute the Schedule in the Schedule to these Regulations.

Regulation 4

SCHEDULE

Regulation 2

"SCHEDULE

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EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Parental Responsibility Agreement Regulations 1991. They prescribe a form, C(PRA3), to record an agreement under section 4ZA of the Children Act 1989 (c.41) for the acquisition of parental responsibility by a second female parent. Section 4ZA is inserted into the Children Act 1989 by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (c.22) and provides for circumstances in which a woman, who is treated as a parent of a child by virtue of section 43 of the 2008 Act, may acquire parental responsibility for that child.

The notes to form C(PRA2) (Step-Parent Parental Responsibility Agreement) are amended to allow for the fact that parental responsibility might be held by persons who were previously in a civil partnership as well as those who were previously married or that a parental responsibility agreement might have been entered into previously by the child´s mother and a second female parent.

The amended forms C(PRA2) and C(PRA3) both now ask for the -˜gender´ of the child and for the sake of consistency form C(PRA1) has been similarly amended.