Make Severe Parental Alienation a Criminal Offence in the United Kingdom

Children deserve protection from emotional abuse.

Every child deserves the love, care and support of both parents where it is safe for them to have that relationship.

Yet across the United Kingdom, thousands of children are losing one side of their family through deliberate manipulation by the other parent. This behaviour, often referred to as parental alienation or alienating behaviours, can cause lifelong emotional harm to children and devastating consequences for families.

While the law rightly protects children from physical abuse, it still fails to adequately protect many children from sustained emotional abuse that deliberately destroys their relationship with a loving parent.

This must change.

What is parental alienation?

Parental alienation occurs when one parent deliberately manipulates a child into rejecting, fearing or refusing a relationship with the other parent without legitimate justification.

This can include:

Constantly criticising or demonising the other parent.
Making false allegations.
Preventing or frustrating contact.
Interfering with communication.
Encouraging loyalty conflicts.
Convincing a child that a loving parent does not care about them.
The result is often a child who genuinely believes these false narratives, leading to the loss of a healthy parent-child relationship.

This is emotional abuse.

The current problem

Although the Family Courts may recognise alienating behaviours in some cases, there is currently no specific criminal offence addressing severe parental alienation in England and Wales.

Many parents spend years and tens of thousands of pounds fighting through the Family Courts simply to remain part of their child’s life.

Even where courts identify harmful behaviour, the consequences can be inconsistent and, in many cases, too little too late.

By then, precious years of childhood have already been lost.

An unfair imbalance

The law can impose serious penalties on a parent who takes their child abroad without the appropriate consent, including the possibility of criminal prosecution in some circumstances.

Yet a parent who deliberately and repeatedly emotionally manipulates a child into rejecting a safe and loving parent may face no equivalent criminal sanction.

Children deserve equal protection from emotional abuse as they do from physical abuse.

Child maintenance must also be reviewed

Another significant issue is the imbalance between child maintenance and a child’s right to maintain a meaningful relationship with both parents.

Across the UK, many parents continue paying child maintenance every month while being unjustifiably prevented from seeing their child.

These parents are not trying to avoid their financial responsibilities. They want to support their children financially.

What they cannot understand is why the law is so effective at enforcing financial obligations while often failing to enforce a child’s right to maintain a relationship with both parents.

There are reported cases of parents paying tens of thousands of pounds in child maintenance while being denied any meaningful contact with their child.

We believe this system requires urgent review.

Where there is credible evidence that one parent is deliberately and unjustifiably preventing contact, and there are no safeguarding concerns or court orders restricting that relationship, child maintenance should be capable of being paid into a protected escrow account until the matter is resolved by the court. This would ensure that money remains available for the child’s benefit while preventing the system from rewarding deliberate obstruction of contact.

We are calling on the UK Government to:

Create a specific criminal offence for severe and deliberate parental alienation.
Recognise severe parental alienation as a form of emotional child abuse.
Introduce meaningful penalties for those who intentionally destroy a child’s relationship with a loving parent.
Provide specialist training for judges, CAFCASS officers, social workers and police so alienating behaviours are recognised and addressed consistently.
Strengthen enforcement where court-ordered contact is repeatedly ignored without lawful justification.
Review the child maintenance system to ensure it does not unfairly disadvantage parents who are being deliberately denied contact while safeguarding the child’s financial interests.
Prioritise early intervention before years of a child’s life are lost.
This petition is about protecting children

This petition is not about forcing children into unsafe relationships.

Where there is evidence of abuse, neglect or any genuine safeguarding concerns, children must always come first and be protected.

This petition is about those cases where there are no safeguarding concerns, yet a child is deliberately manipulated into rejecting a safe, loving and willing parent.

No child should lose half of their family because of one adult’s actions.

No parent should be able to use a child as a weapon without meaningful accountability.

Every child deserves both emotional security and the opportunity to have a loving relationship with both parents whenever it is safe.

If you believe children deserve stronger protection from this form of emotional abuse, please sign this petition and help bring this issue before Parliament.

Together, we can push for laws that protect not only a child’s physical safety, but also their emotional wellbeing, their identity and their right to know and be loved by both parents.