Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has commissioned independent research on the experience of litigants during and prior to entering the family court process since April 2013.

The Department has regularly commissioned independent research on the experience of litigants during and prior to entering the family court process since April 2013. Most recently this includes: independent research undertaken as part of the 2020 report on Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases; externally commissioned research exploring The Factors Influencing Users’ Decisions to Bring Cases to the Civil and Family Courts published in 2023; and the Review of the Presumption of Parental Involvement due to be published in early 2024.

Research conducted by, or on behalf of the MoJ, is published on ‘Research and statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)’ according to Government Social Research protocols.