Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of the availability of early dispute resolution and mediation services for separating parents before child arrangements proceedings commence.

The Government is committed to ensuring that separating parents can resolve any issues regarding child arrangements in a way that works for them, providing this is safe and in the child’s best interests and keeps the adequacy and availability of services under regular review.

In suitable cases, early dispute resolution and mediation offers a swift, flexible approach to agreeing child arrangements where court attendance is not required.

To enable this, the Government has made information on early dispute resolution and family mediation services available to the public and offers financial help to anyone engaging in family mediation where there is a dispute over a child, most notably via the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme.

This scheme gives all those who qualify, including separating and divorcing parents, a £500 non-means tested single use voucher to spend on family mediation. There is no annual cap on the number of vouchers available and Legal Aid is also available for family mediation if the applicant meets the requirements.