Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many child contact cases involving incidents of domestic abuse where there (a) has and (b) has not been a conviction have been repeatedly brought before the family courts.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold the requested data. The President of the Family Division recently revised the practice direction which sets out the procedure for family judges to follow when dealing with child arrangement cases where domestic abuse is alleged. This makes clear that judges must take appropriate steps to explore any allegations of domestic abuse and give full regard to the impact of any abuse when making a child arrangement order.