10:00PM GMT 02 Feb 2012
Ministers intend to rewrite the law in an attempt to ensure that fathers get improved access to their offspring after a marriage breaks down.
Currently, family courts decide to leave children with their mothers in the vast majority of divorce cases.
Campaigners have long complained that without a legal right to see their children, fathers can be excluded, particularly when a split has been acrimonious. By creating the new right for children, ministers hope that judges ruling on custody disputes will ensure more equal access for both parents.
A ministerial working group will be announced on Monday to decide how the Children’s Act 1989 needs to be amended.
According to the Office for National Statistics, one in three children, equivalent to 3.8 million, lives without their father. Ministers are particularly concerned about boys growing up without a strong male influence.
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