Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department plans to take to increase the take-up of mediation for family disputes.

We have taken a number of steps to increase the take-up of family mediation. From 3 November last year the first single session of mediation is publicly funded in all cases where one of the people involved is already legally aided. The ‘First Stop: Family Mediation’ campaign which ran between January and March this year was designed to raise awareness of the benefits of family mediation. The campaign saw an increase of 340% in the number of visitors to the Family Mediation Council (FMC) website and a 45% increase to the ‘find a mediator’ page on their website. We will continue to look at ways in which family mediation can be promoted as a quicker, cheaper and more effective ways for parties to resolve disputes over an application through the court.

We are working with the mediation sector and regulators to investigate how we can strengthen out of court agreements (or ‘memorandum of understandings’) to encourage people to mediate. .

We will also consult with all relevant stakeholders to look at ways in which new family mediation contracts can be improved to help encourage more parties to participate in family mediation.