Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will implement mandatory training of judges in Family Courts in relation to domestic abuse to help increase their understanding of the issues they are dealing with in private law children cases.

It is not constitutionally appropriate for judicial training to be mandated, monitored and/or overseen by the Secretary of State. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively. Training responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College. The judiciary and professional staff in the Judicial College are responsible for the design, content, and delivery of judicial training.

Refreshed and updated specialist digital training on domestic abuse was launched in October 2021 for all family judges and magistrates. This training year (2022/23), the Judicial College is also running bespoke training on domestic abuse for all family and civil judges and new training that addresses the attitudinal and behavioural issues raised in recent caselaw, the MoJ Harm Report and the Domestic Abuse Act will be rolled out from April 2022.