Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing specialist family judges to determine all child arrangement orders.

The Ministry of Justice and HMCTS do not collect data on the number or outcome of applications for Child Arrangement Orders heard by magistrates in the family courts.

When sitting in the family courts, magistrates are supported by legal advisers who are qualified to provide advice on the law and procedures magistrates must follow, and who are also subject to an ongoing family training requirement.

All judges – including magistrates – who hear applications for Child Arrangements Orders are obligated by the Children Act 1989 to have the child’s welfare as their paramount consideration and must undergo extensive training.

To safeguard their independence, the appointment and training of magistrates is overseen by the judiciary as set out under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Magistrates have been determining cases in the family court since that court’s inception in 2014, and in the predecessor Family Proceedings Courts before then.

To be appointed as a magistrate, each individual must undertake training on determining the best interests of the child, navigating the welfare checklist, and ways of communicating with people in court, particularly where there is high conflict.