Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if the Government will commission a cross-departmental review across (a) justice, (b) education and (c) welfare on (i) improving support for and (ii) empowering fathers in maintaining active roles in children’s lives.

The Ministry of Justice holds data on child arrangements that might help answer the questions relating to:

• The number of custody arrangements ordered by family courts that resulted in the father being granted equal or majority care of the child in the last five years.

• The average waiting time for fathers seeking access to their children through the family courts after a separation.

• The number of fathers prevented from seeing their children following court proceedings in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not held centrally.  It may be held in court records, but to determine that and obtain it would incur disproportionate costs

The Ministry of Justice is not able to estimate the average cost to fathers of making child arrangements in court as this data is not available.

We are committed to ensuring that the family justice system supports all parents – including fathers – and children and reflects the realities of modern family life, and we recognise the importance of ensuring that both parents have the opportunity to maintain meaningful relationships with their children where it is safe and appropriate to do so.

The Children Act 1989 requires the court to have the child’s welfare as its paramount consideration when making a decision about the child’s upbringing. Any decisions the family courts make about the future arrangements for children are based on this fundamental principle. There is no automatic assumption of shared custody, as decisions about whom a child is to live or spend time with are based on the child’s best interests. This principle applies equally to mothers and fathers.

The Government is already taking steps to ensure that financial hardship does not prevent parents from engaging with the family court system. To support access to justice, the Help with Fees scheme provides full or partial remission of court and tribunal fees for those who cannot otherwise afford them. This includes applications made in the family courts such as applications for child arrangements orders.

We are also working to reduce backlogs and improve timeliness, so that children – and the parents seeking to support them – can access the support and stability they need without unnecessary delay. This includes the agreement of system-wide targets by the Family Justice Board for 2025/26, with a continued focus on tackling delay and reducing outstanding caseloads. In public law proceedings relating to children (such as care proceedings), this involves a renewed emphasis on the procedure set out in the Public Law Outline; and in private law proceedings relating to children (such as applications for child arrangements orders), areas delivering the new Pathfinder model have made significant progress in addressing delays.

The Government does not have any plans to commission a cross-departmental review as suggested, and we have committed to long-term reform of the family courts to deliver better outcomes for families.