{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/guardianship-of-minors-act-1971/section-1",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/guardianship-of-minors-act-1971/section-1.json",
  "legislation": "ukpga/1971/3",
  "legislation_title": "Guardianship of Minors Act 1971",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/guardianship-of-minors-act-1971",
  "path": "section/1",
  "kind": "section",
  "number": "1",
  "heading": "Principle on which questions relating to custody, upbringing etc. of minors are to be decided.",
  "text": "Where in any proceedings before any court (whether or not a court as defined in section 15 of this Act)—\n(a) the legal custody or upbringing of a minor; or\n(b) the administration of any property belonging to or held on trust for a minor, or the application of the income thereof,\nis in question, the court, in deciding that question, shall regard the welfare of the minor as the first and paramount consideration, and shall not take into consideration whether from any other point of view the claim of the father, . . . in respect of such legal custody, upbringing, administration or application is superior to that of the mother, or the claim of the mother is superior to that of the father.",
  "extent": "E+W",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F1",
      "text": "Words substituted by Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978 (c. 22, SIF 49:3), s. 36(1)(a), Sch. 1"
    },
    {
      "type": "F",
      "label": "F2",
      "text": "Words repealed by Guardianship Act 1973 (c. 29, SIF 49:9), Sch. 3"
    },
    {
      "type": "C",
      "label": "C1",
      "text": "S. 1 explained by Children Act 1975 (c. 72, SIF 49:9), s. 33(9) and Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978 (c. 22, SIF 49:3), s. 15"
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/3/section/1",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T10:50:31.584839+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}