Petition Give parents who split up automatic equal shared custody of their children

We want the law to start from the assumption of equally shared custody, with each parent being given the option to negotiate down from this, depending on work commitments etc. I don’t believe in the current system that there is any gender equality.

More details

It could help prevent missing valuable family time for children and parents. It could also help prevent upset for children, the parent with limited or no contact and their wider family too, as well as huge amounts of money parents could otherwise spend on their children.

I think that the system is archaic and sexist; it's too easy for one parent to prevent children seeing other parents equally, or at all. I believe this is often done to punish the other parent and/or for reasons other than what is in the child's best interests.

This petition closed early because of a General Election Find out more on the Petitions Committee website

248 signatures

Show on a map

10,000

Date closed 30 May 2024
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.