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Written Question
Family Proceedings
Thursday 27th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the results of their consultation Assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases, which closed on 27 August 2019; whether they intend to publish any provisional findings of the panel appointed to conduct the consultation; and if so, when.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

The panel assessing the risk of harm to children and parents in private law cases has been meeting regularly to discuss the wealth of evidence collected from 1,200 individuals and organisations, and is in the process of finalising its report. It is right that it takes the time to analyse this data and to consider the recommendations for how the family courts can be reformed to improve the experiences of victims of harm. A full report outlining the findings and recommended next steps will be published this spring. The Government will publish a response at the same time setting out the steps we will take to reform the family courts.

After the panel completed the call for evidence in Autumn 2019, the Ministry of Justice published a Progress Update on 23 October. The Progress Update included provisional findings from the panel. This has been attached and can also be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/assessing-risk-of-harm-to-children-and-parents-in-private-law-children-cases.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse
Thursday 27th February 2020

Asked by: Baroness Penn (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what further consideration they have given to the recommendation of the report by the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, Draft Domestic Abuse Bill (HL Paper 378, session 2017–19), published on 14 June 2019, to extend the range of evidence accepted for the automatic prohibition of cross-examination by perpetrators of domestic abuse; and whether that recommendation will be reflected in the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Bill.

Answered by Lord Keen of Elie

We indicated in our initial response to the Joint Committee’s report, published in July 2019, that we would publish a further response in due course addressing around ten recommendations where we needed more time to fully consider the Committee’s proposals. This included their recommendation in respect of the scope of the automatic prohibition on cross-examination in person in family proceedings. We aim to publish that further response alongside the Domestic Abuse Bill. As the Leader of the House of Commons has indicated (Official Report, House of Commons, 23 January 2020, column 423), we expect to re-introduce the Bill ahead of the Easter recess.