My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (John Hutton) has made the following Statement.

I have today published a Green Paper on the Government’s commitment to take forward new proposals in joint birth registration.

In December 2006 the Government published the White Paper A New System of Child Maintenance. This paper set out the Government’s proposal to make joint birth registration the default position for birth registration. It is the Government’s ambition significantly to decrease the number of sole registrations from the current level of around 7 per cent of births per year. This Green Paper sets out how we might achieve this ambition while providing robust exemptions for the protection of vulnerable mothers and children. We have always been clear that we would legislate on this issue only once we are sure such safeguards can be put in place and any legislation will have specific exceptions.

Joint birth registration is a positive, early intervention initiative that could form part of a wider cross-government programme to promote good parenting, fatherhood and parental responsibility. The point at which a birth is registered is also an ideal time for possibly vulnerable or at risk parents to be identified.

Making joint birth registration the normal requirement, and doing more to promote and explain this requirement to parents, will publicly embed an expectation that the usual course of events is for both parents to acknowledge and be involved in the upbringing of their children.

This could also lead to positive changes in the level of fathers paying maintenance for their child’s upbringing or provide a starting point for single parents to claim child maintenance where there is no longer a relationship between the parents.

The Government believe that joint birth registration can make a significant contribution to child welfare and is committed to actively promoting it. This Green Paper sets out proposals to achieve this aim alongside a number of further non-legislative measures designed to maximise the number of joint registrations. The Government believe that these are critical to ensuring the success of our approach. The Green Paper asks whether these measures should be advanced as complementary to the legislative approach or developed solely within the current legislative framework.

Copies of the Green Paper are available for Members from the Vote Office.