Where parents have separated or divorced, holidays for the children can be a source of dispute, especially if one party wishes to take the children out of the country. With the summer holidays coming up hopefully arrangements with respect of taking the children on holiday abroad have already been agreed.
It is a criminal offence to take a child out of the UK without the permission of everyone with parental responsibility unless you have permission of the court or the party taking the children on holiday has a child arrangement order setting out that the child ‘live’ with them. If more than one person has parental responsibility for the child, and there is no court order in place, then it is not a case where one parent can override the other parent’s objections and simply take the child away as they risk committing child abduction. In this situation then permission of any other with parental responsibility needs to be obtained for the child to go abroad.
If a child arrangement order is in place, then the person(s) with whom the child ‘lives’ (this could be with both parents), subject to any other conditions specific to any court order, can take the child out of the country for up to one month without any further permission of any other with parental responsibility. If one parent is described as having ‘contact’ with the child within a child arrangement order then permission is still required from the other parent with parental responsibility (unless otherwise specified in the order) to take the children abroad.
With the delays in the family courts in the listing of matters, then applications made shortly before a holiday are potentially unlikely to be listed or decided prior to the planned trip dates. Alternative means of coming to an agreement could be sought through mediation or arbitration.
Where agreement to take a child abroad on holiday is required, then the earlier this sought the better as to try to avoid the situation of trying to obtain permission at the last minute.
For more information on children contact matters or to find out how we can help you, please contact our Family Team on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our Team will be in touch.