Asked by: Baroness Howe of Idlicote (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much money has been spent under section 22 of the Family Law Act 1996 on (1) the provision of marriage support services, (2) research into the causes of marital breakdown, and (3) the research into ways of preventing marital breakdown, for every financial year since the Act was passed.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
As policy responsibility for relationship issues has moved between departments several times since 1996, the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
The policy responsibility for relationship issues currently sits with the Department for Work and Pensions. The Department does not make grants under section 22 of the Family Law Act (1996). However, we have funded a range of work to help couples (including those who are married) to improve the quality of their relationships.
Since responsibility for this area moved to the Department, we have spent the following in each financial year:
2014/15 - £7.5 million
2015/16 - £11.2 million
2016/17 - £6.3 million
2017/18 - £5.24 million
2018/19 - £15.85 million
2019/20 current forecast - £10.2 million
Currently, these services are focused on the specific issue of parental conflict, and are delivered through our Reducing Parental Conflict programme.