Petition · past parliament

Review and/or amend Parental Rights of Prisoners in exceptional circumstances.

Rejected 21 signatures

What the petition asks

With reference to: Commons Library Briefing 10/02/2020 section 6, Losing Parental Responsibility (PR). Under Children Act 1989, it is not clear how a person who has been accused and/or consequently is convicted of murdering the only other with PR can have ones own PR removed by surviving relatives.
Under present legislation, a person with Parental Responsibility (PR) who has been accused or admitted to the murder of the only other person holding PR at present still has legal responsibility in the affairs of all children within their scope of PR. At present this leaves those who may be applying for a Special Guardianship Order with a barrier which should not be applicable unless at a future time the accused person with PR is proved innocent or is deemed at a later date fit to hold PR.

Why it was rejected

It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.

Petitions need to call on the Government or Parliament to take a specific action.

We understand that you are concerned about arrangements for parental responsibility where one parent is convicted of murdering the other, but we're not sure exactly what you'd like the Government or Parliament to do. We could accept a petition calling for parental responsibility to be removed from parents in this situation, if that's what you want to happen.

Timeline

1 Sep 2021 Petition opened for signatures
7 Sep 2021 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 21
Status Rejected
Rejected 7 Sep 2021

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.