Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to publish the results of their consultation Assessing risk of harm to children and parents in private law children cases, which closed on 27 August 2019; whether they intend to publish any provisional findings of the panel appointed to conduct the consultation; and if so, when.

The panel assessing the risk of harm to children and parents in private law cases has been meeting regularly to discuss the wealth of evidence collected from 1,200 individuals and organisations, and is in the process of finalising its report. It is right that it takes the time to analyse this data and to consider the recommendations for how the family courts can be reformed to improve the experiences of victims of harm. A full report outlining the findings and recommended next steps will be published this spring. The Government will publish a response at the same time setting out the steps we will take to reform the family courts.

After the panel completed the call for evidence in Autumn 2019, the Ministry of Justice published a Progress Update on 23 October. The Progress Update included provisional findings from the panel. This has been attached and can also be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/assessing-risk-of-harm-to-children-and-parents-in-private-law-children-cases.