AN MP is calling on Prime Minister David Cameron to take action to ensures fathers are named on children’s birth certificates.

In the run-up to Father's Day on Sunday, Eastbourne MP Caroline Ansell has signed a letter demanding government action following a consultation on joint registration of parents that has languished since 2010.

More than one million children in the UK have no meaningful contact with their father and 247,000 children under seven have no registered father at birth.

This means every year one in 20 children is born with no registered father, adding up to at least one child in every primary school class with a blank space on their birth certificate.

Caroline said: "Fathers have a crucial role to play in family life and the Government can do more to help by making this registration mandatory.

"In the last few days research has placed British fathers behind the rest of the developed world for sharing childcare responsibilities.

"But the report was clear there is more we must do more to create the policies to support families to achieve the greater sharing of parental responsibilities that the vast majority of fathers are actually desperate to take part in.

"Work needs to be done by government, organisations and society itself to further close the gender pay gap, improve the parental leave system and be mindful of family services that can leave dads feeling excluded from groups or activities.

"Reform of family court proceedings in the event of parents' separation is again hugely important work.

"Mandatory registration is a significant social message: that dads do matter right from the start and at every age stage."

The MP has spoken about the importance of the family in today's society.

She said: "Whether it’s tackling crime and anti-social behaviour or debt and drug addiction; whether it’s dealing with welfare dependency or improving education outcomes – whatever the social issue we want to grasp – the answer should always begin with the family."