The case highlighted in the Sun newspaper of a father's attempts to win custody of his daughter, raises important issues over the rights of fathers in unmarried relationships.

Whe a man fathers a child, he does not get automatic rights to have a say over the child's future - unless he is married to the mother.

It is only in married relationships that fathers automatically get parental responsibility - the definition in law which gives a person the right to make important decisions about a child.

Where the mother and father of a child are unmarried, the father's name is not automatically added to that child's birth certificate.

His name can only be added if, firstly the mother of the child agrees, and secondly, if the father attends the registration in person and signs the baby's registration form.

But just adding a father's name to a birth certificate, does not automatically grant an unmarried father parental responsibility.

To get that, he would have to get a Parental Responsibility Order from the court.

It is only when an unmarried father has parental responsibility, that social workers have a legal duty to inform the father about important decisions being made about a child, for instance taking a child into care or placing them for adoption.

However, they can still seek the opinions of an unmarried father without parental responsibility, if the mother of the child requests it.

When a child is placed for adoption, social workers have a duty to seek the opinions of both parents. For parents that were married at the time of the child's birth, both have to give their consent.

In other cases, the father is not asked for his agreement though he may be consulted and he may be allowed to propose alternatives to adoption to the court.

Where the father does not have parental responsibility and his identity is unknown, the adoption agency should still try to find out if he intends to apply for a Parental Responsibility Order.