Parental responsibility: court orders, testamentary guardians and loco parentis: caseworker guidance
HM Passport Office guidance on how to deal with applications involving parental responsibility, court orders, testamentary guardians and loco parentis.
- From:
- HM Passport Office
- Published
- 24 January 2024
- Last updated
-
2513NovemberOctober20242025 — See all updates
Documents
Parental responsibility: court orders, testamentary guardians and loco parentis
PDF, 296275 KB, 2120 pages
This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.
Request an accessible format.
Details
This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff dealing with applications from customers living in the UK or overseas what to do if there is no one with automatic parental responsibility.
It includes:
- information about court orders that grant parental responsibility (PR) to a person who does not have automatic PR
- how to deal with an application where the person consenting is named in a will as a testamentary guardian
- if the person consenting to the application does not have parental responsibility automatically or through a court order but is acting in loco parentis (in place of a parent)
- what to record as a case note if someone has legal guardianship through a court order, testamentary guardianship or is acting in loco parentis
Details
This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff dealing with applications from customers living in the UK or overseas what to do if there is no one with automatic parental responsibility.
It includes:
- information about court orders that grant parental responsibility (PR) to a person who does not have automatic PR
- how to deal with an application where the person consenting is named in a will as a testamentary guardian
- if the person consenting to the application does not have parental responsibility automatically or through a court order but is acting in loco parentis (in place of a parent)
- what to record as a case note if someone has legal guardianship through a court order, testamentary guardianship or is acting in loco parentis
Updates to this page
Sign up for emails or print this page
Update history
2026-05-18 08:48
Updated to change references from letter 150 to the Parental responsibility letter on Comms builder.
2025-12-17 12:40
Updated to change references from Child Protection and Safeguarding team (CPST) to Public Protection Specialist Safeguarding team (PP SST), following a team name change.
2025-10-13 12:17
Guidance updated to change terminology from ‘overseas’ to ‘international’ in relation to customers.
2024-11-25 10:53
Updated document to make it clear how parental responsibility is granted through child arrangement orders.
2024-01-24 14:28
First published.