Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps is the Department taking to reduce waiting times in the family courts.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones

This Government is committed to improving the performance of the Family Courts, and the Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide priorities and targets for reducing delay across England and Wales. The latest published data shows a reduction in the national average case duration for both public and private law cases.

In London, which has particular challenges around Family Court delays, a dedicated Family Justice Strategy has been implemented, bringing together key partners and the judiciary. This work has included targeted investment over 2025/26 to tackle the outstanding private law caseload by providing additional court capacity and a focus on ensuring that courts follow the Public Law Outline, with clear arrangements for overseeing performance. These measures have already delivered a reduction in delays.

The Child Focused Model for private law now operates in 10 of 43 Family Court areas and seek to enhance the experience of children and families. They have demonstrated significant impact on timeliness. Cases are concluding between 11-30 weeks quicker under the model and outstanding caseloads have been reduced by up to 50%. The Government announced on 17 March its intention to roll this model out nationally by the end of this Parliament

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to relocate all eligible Afghan nationals as part of the Afghanistan Settlement Scheme.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

Under the Afghan Resettlement Programme (ARP), eligible Afghans continue to be relocated to the UK from third countries, once they have completed the strict security and entry clearance checks that are required to obtain a UK visa.

His Majesty's Government continues to provide discretionary support for eligible Afghans in third countries while a decision is being reached on their UK entry clearance applications.

It remains a priority for this Government to have successfully concluded the ARP by the end of this Parliament.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that family courts safeguard the wellbeing of both parents and children.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones

This Government is committed to ensuring that families involved in private family law proceedings receive the support they need and we are delivering a package of reforms to strengthen their wellbeing and safety throughout the process.

A key part of this reform is the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act 1989. We have carefully assessed the impact of this measure, which involves courts adopting an open minded enquiry into what is in a child’s best interests, rather than starting from an assumption about parental involvement. Repealing the presumption will help ensure that decisions about child arrangements keep the child’s welfare at the centre of decision-making and are based on a robust assessment of risk. The impact assessment can be found at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0389/Non-IRCC_impact_assessment.pdf.

We are also expanding our Child Focused Courts programme nationally, which improves how Family Courts manage many private law children cases, including those involving a child arrangements order. By providing early risk assessment, specialist domestic abuse support and a non-adversarial, problem-solving process, it better safeguards the wellbeing of children and families.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement on children’s safety and wellbeing.

Answered by Alex Davies-Jones

This Government is committed to ensuring that families involved in private family law proceedings receive the support they need and we are delivering a package of reforms to strengthen their wellbeing and safety throughout the process.

A key part of this reform is the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act 1989. We have carefully assessed the impact of this measure, which involves courts adopting an open minded enquiry into what is in a child’s best interests, rather than starting from an assumption about parental involvement. Repealing the presumption will help ensure that decisions about child arrangements keep the child’s welfare at the centre of decision-making and are based on a robust assessment of risk. The impact assessment can be found at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0389/Non-IRCC_impact_assessment.pdf.

We are also expanding our Child Focused Courts programme nationally, which improves how Family Courts manage many private law children cases, including those involving a child arrangements order. By providing early risk assessment, specialist domestic abuse support and a non-adversarial, problem-solving process, it better safeguards the wellbeing of children and families.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of police powers to consider the cumulative impact of protests on the right and freedom to peaceful protest.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government remains committed to protecting the right to peaceful protest, while ensuring that communities are protected from repeated and sustained disruption. The cumulative disruption provision in the Crime and Policing Bill places a duty on senior officers to take account of the cumulative impact of protest activity when considering whether to impose conditions under sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986. Police forces can already take cumulative impact into account when imposing conditions on protests.

All measures within the Crime and Policing Bill are assessed to be compatible with the rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

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