Current status: Answered by Siobhian Brown on 7 August 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a presumption of shared parenting into law.
No. It is the Scottish Government’s view that both parents should be fully involved in their child’s life, as long as this is practical and in the child’s best interests.
There is no legal presumption in favour of shared parenting in section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, which is the key legislation in relation to contact, residence and parental responsibilities and rights. When deciding whether to make an order under section 11 (e.g. a contact or residence order) the welfare of the child must be the court’s paramount consideration.
The Scottish Government has no plans to change the law to introduce a presumption of shared parenting, as this could cut across the driving principle of the legislation that the welfare of the child is paramount.
However, section 16 of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, once in force, will require the court to consider the effect of any order under section 11 of the 1995 Act on the involvement of the child's parents in bringing the child up. We plan to make further commencement regulations later this year to bring provisions, including section 16, into force in October 2026.