Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral Answer of 25 February 2020, Official Report, column 176, what the outcome was of his meeting of 26 February 2020 with the President of the Family Division.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Lord Chancellor had a constructive discussion with the President of the Family Division about their shared desire to ensure that vulnerable parties are given the right support through the family court process.
Our expert panel on harm in the family courts is actively considering these issues. The panel is finalising its report and will publish findings and recommendations for next steps this Spring.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the President of the Family Division in relation to transparency in the family courts.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Ministers at the Ministry of Justice hold regular discussions with the President of the Family Division on a range of issues. The Government fully recognises that family proceedings should be as transparent as possible, and welcomes the progress that has been made towards greater openness together with the review on transparency that the President of the Family Division is currently undertaking. Accredited media have been allowed access to certain hearings in the family courts since 2009, and in 2014 the previous President of the Family Division issued guidance leading to the increased publication of judgments. A pilot allowing legal bloggers to report on family proceedings has been running since 2018, and the current President of the Family Division published new guidance on anonymising judgments for publication in 2018 and reporting in the family courts in 2019.
Greater transparency must be weighed against the need to safeguard children and their family’s privacy given the extremely sensitive information about them that the family courts often need to consider. The Government will continue to work with the senior judiciary to ensure that the right balance is struck between transparency and privacy.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on his Department's review of domestic abuse and the family courts.
Answered by Wendy Morton
On 21 May 2019 we announced a public call for evidence led by a panel of experts to gather evidence on how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences.
The panel completed the call for evidence in September 2019, and published a Progress Update in October outlining the work completed and next steps.
The panel has been meeting regularly to discuss the wealth of evidence collected from 1,200 individuals and organisations, and are in the process of drafting their report. This will be published in due course.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many family court advisers were employed by Cafcass in each year from 2010 to date.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of family court advisers who were employed by Cafcass in each year from 2010 to date:
Month and Year | Number of Family Court Advisors |
March 2010 | 1120 |
March 2011 | 1116 |
March 2012 | 1163 |
March 2013 | 1198 |
March 2014 | 1226 |
March 2015 | 1200 |
March 2016 | 1192 |
March 2017 | 1146 |
March 2018 | 1295 |
March 2019 | 1337 |
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal cases have been referred to the Court of Appeal for review as a result of data manipulation at Randox Testing Services; and what was the outcome of those cases.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The latest figures show that four road traffic cases have been taken to the Court of Appeal, of which one case was overturned, one resulted in a reduction in sentence, one appeal was unsuccessful, and the fourth is still to be decided. Re-testing has so far identified no impact on other criminal offences, such as sexual offences, violence, or homicide. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) co-ordinates the national re-testing operation, and is responsible for providing regular updates.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of the number of Civil and Family Court cases where decisions were taken on the basis of manipulated forensic testing provided by (a) Randox and (b) Trimega.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Greater Manchester Police are undertaking an ongoing, expansive criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of toxicology results by individuals who were employed at Trimega, and later Randox Testing Services (RTS) after Trimega’s liquidation in 2014.
The investigation will seek to determine how many cases may have been affected and retesting of samples continues at pace. As such, it is not possible to provide an estimate of the number of cases affected at this time.
A bespoke court process has been implemented so that individuals who are concerned about the outcome of cases involving tests performed by Trimega can apply to the court to consider setting aside or changing their order.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on whether damages have been paid to people as a result of manipulation of forensic toxicology results at Randox.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is unable to comment on compensation payments relating to the manipulation of forensic toxicology results at Randox until the criminal investigation into this matter is complete.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made on the number of cases undertaken by Cafcass in each year from 2010.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of cases undertaken by Cafcass in each year from 2010 is as follows:
2009-10 | 56, 502 |
2010-11 | 55, 538 |
2011-12 | 54, 852 |
2012-13 | 59, 226 |
2013-14 | 60, 629 |
2014-15 | 48, 898 |
2015-16 | 54, 226 |
2016-17 | 59, 286 |
2017-18 | 60, 904 |
2018-19 | 62, 347 |
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Ministry of Justice press release of 21 May 2019 entitled Spotlight on child protection in family courts (a) if he will list the panel of experts assembled and (b) whether any survivors or victims of domestic abuse will sit on the panel.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 21 May 2019 we announced a public call for evidence led by a panel of experts to gather evidence on how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences.
The inaugural panel meeting is due to take place Friday 14 June 2019, after which we will publicly announce the panel members and agreed objectives for the call for evidence.
The panel members represent key parties to the issue and will provide expertise from across the Family Justice System. Included are representatives from the Judiciary, academia, social care, policy officials and third sector organisations which represent and advocate for victims of domestic abuse.
It is vital that this call for evidence can contribute to real improvements to the Family Justice System to protect victims and their families. For this reason, the experiences of victims will be central to the evidence gathered by the panel.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the proportion of cases where domestic abuse was alleged or proven in initial safeguarding where (a) a Cafcass Early Intervention Team phone call did not take place before a First Hearing and Dispute Resolution Appointment, (b) children were not interviewed and (c) a risk assessment was not completed in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Cafcass undertakes safeguarding checks in every case where an application is made to the court for a child arrangements order and reports relevant information to the court in a safeguarding letter prior to the first hearing. As part of that process, Cafcass will attempt to contact each party separately by telephone to elicit any concerns about any risks of harm, either to the child or to an adult party. Cafcass conducts checks of police records and makes enquiries of the local authority and will include in its safeguarding letter any relevant convictions or cautions or prior local authority involvement.
Cafcass undertakes direct work with the child when directed to do so by the court, in cases that continue after the first hearing. This includes interviewing children in order to ascertain their wishes and feelings to produce a section 7 welfare report into the child’s welfare needs. Any information disclosed by the child about domestic or other abuse will be reported to the court. In 2018-19 Cafcass produced 19,236 s7 welfare reports.
Cafcass does not record data on the contents of individual safeguarding letters. However, a file analysis of 216 private law cases undertaken in 2017 found that domestic abuse was alleged in 62% of cases. Practice Direction 12J sets out the factors the court must consider when domestic abuse is raised within the proceedings, including whether a fact-finding hearing should be held. Data is not collected centrally on the number of fact finding hearings and could only be obtained through an analysis of case files at disproportionate cost. Whether or not domestic abuse is alleged or admitted by either party, Cafcass has a statutory duty to report to the court at any stage in the proceedings any concerns it has about the risk of harm to the child.
Data is not available on specific recommendations made by Cafcass to the court about child arrangements in individual cases nor on the detailed content of any child arrangements order subsequently made by the court. Such information could only be obtained from a case file analysis at disproportionate cost.
Data is not collected on the use by the court of its power under section 91(14) of the Children Act 1989 to prevent a named person from applying from a specified kind of order without its permission. Such provision may form part of a child arrangements or other order under made under the 1989 Act.
The Government is determined to improve the family justice response to vulnerable people, including victims of domestic abuse. We are committed to giving the family courts the power to stop unrepresented perpetrators of abuse from cross-examining their victims in person in family proceedings, and we have included measures to prevent this in the draft Domestic Abuse Bill.
On 21 May we also announced the establishment of a panel of experts to consider how the family courts protect children and parents in cases of domestic abuse and other serious offences.