Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will consult with young women and specialist women and girls’ organisations to develop a Young Women's Strategy.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 14 April to Questions 124155, 124156 and 124157.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the recommendations of the Women's Justice Board report entitled Women’s Justice Board recommendations for reducing women’s imprisonment.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 14 April to Questions 124155, 124156 and 124157.
Asked by: Caroline Dinenage (Conservative - Gosport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his department has to develop a Young Women’s Strategy.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 14 April to Questions 124155, 124156 and 124157.
Asked by: Pippa Heylings (Liberal Democrat - South Cambridgeshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that individuals involved in civil justice proceedings who do not have substantial financial means to obtain barristers or paid legal advice are afforded adequate protections, support and access to justice.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Supporting access to justice for everyone in England and Wales is a key objective for this Government, and the Government recognises the important role that legal aid plays in helping some of the most vulnerable in society access legal advice.
Individuals who are unable to pay for legal advice or representation for civil justice issues may be eligible for legal aid, subject to the scope of legal aid and the eligibility rules on financial thresholds and the merits of the case as set out in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) and its supporting secondary legislation. Applications must generally pass a means and merits test. The means test assesses an applicant’s financial eligibility (including their capital e.g. savings), income and access to welfare benefits. The merits test assesses the merits of the case including the likelihood of success and the benefit to the applicant.
This Government is delivering the first major fee uplift for civil legal aid since 1996, investing an estimated £20 million in housing and immigration law once fully implemented. In addition, the Government’s Public Office (Accountability) Bill will provide the largest expansion of civil legal aid in a decade by ensuring bereaved families have access to non-means tested legal aid for all inquests where a public authority is an interested person.
The Government also continues to fund the activities of advice charities to bolster the delivery of legal support services – both in person and online - for people experiencing civil justice problems. The Ministry of Justice is providing nearly £20 million of multi-year funding, extending our existing legal support grant programmes for 59 frontline organisations (including a range of services such as some regional Citizens Advice and Law Centres, other community-based advice services, and online information) to September 2026 to help people resolve legal issues, and providing a new grant that will run from October 2026 to March 2029. We are also working with the sector, via the Legal Support Strategy Delivery Group, to drive improvements to the sector.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement on children’s safety and wellbeing.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is committed to ensuring that families involved in private family law proceedings receive the support they need and we are delivering a package of reforms to strengthen their wellbeing and safety throughout the process.
A key part of this reform is the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act 1989. We have carefully assessed the impact of this measure, which involves courts adopting an open minded enquiry into what is in a child’s best interests, rather than starting from an assumption about parental involvement. Repealing the presumption will help ensure that decisions about child arrangements keep the child’s welfare at the centre of decision-making and are based on a robust assessment of risk. The impact assessment can be found at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0389/Non-IRCC_impact_assessment.pdf.
We are also expanding our Child Focused Courts programme nationally, which improves how Family Courts manage many private law children cases, including those involving a child arrangements order. By providing early risk assessment, specialist domestic abuse support and a non-adversarial, problem-solving process, it better safeguards the wellbeing of children and families.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that family courts safeguard the wellbeing of both parents and children.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is committed to ensuring that families involved in private family law proceedings receive the support they need and we are delivering a package of reforms to strengthen their wellbeing and safety throughout the process.
A key part of this reform is the repeal of the presumption of parental involvement from the Children Act 1989. We have carefully assessed the impact of this measure, which involves courts adopting an open minded enquiry into what is in a child’s best interests, rather than starting from an assumption about parental involvement. Repealing the presumption will help ensure that decisions about child arrangements keep the child’s welfare at the centre of decision-making and are based on a robust assessment of risk. The impact assessment can be found at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/59-01/0389/Non-IRCC_impact_assessment.pdf.
We are also expanding our Child Focused Courts programme nationally, which improves how Family Courts manage many private law children cases, including those involving a child arrangements order. By providing early risk assessment, specialist domestic abuse support and a non-adversarial, problem-solving process, it better safeguards the wellbeing of children and families.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will undertake a review of the legal management of divorce proceedings; and if he will make it his policy to reform interim financial arrangements to ensure neither party is financially disadvantaged or placed in financial difficulty prior to the final settlement.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has no plans to undertake a further review of divorce law in respect of the way in which marriages are dissolved. This is because significant reforms were introduced by the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act (“DDSA”) 2020, which came into force on 6 April 2022. These reforms established a system of no-fault divorce, enabled joint applications and strengthened protections for respondents, including by making provision to delay the final order where financial disadvantage may arise before the settlement becomes final.
The law governing financial remedies on divorce enables parties to apply to the court for the division of assets. This legislation also allows applications for interim maintenance orders (known as “maintenance pending suit”) once a divorce application has been made. These orders can meet immediate needs, in so far as the court thinks reasonable, before a financial settlement is reached.
The Law Commission conducted a review of the law relating to financial remedies on divorce in December 2024. The Government will be considering issues raised by the Law Commission, including issues relating to vulnerable individuals, in its upcoming consultation on Cohabitation and Financial Remedies.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps is the Department taking to reduce waiting times in the family courts.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is committed to improving the performance of the Family Courts, and the Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide priorities and targets for reducing delay across England and Wales. The latest published data shows a reduction in the national average case duration for both public and private law cases.
In London, which has particular challenges around Family Court delays, a dedicated Family Justice Strategy has been implemented, bringing together key partners and the judiciary. This work has included targeted investment over 2025/26 to tackle the outstanding private law caseload by providing additional court capacity and a focus on ensuring that courts follow the Public Law Outline, with clear arrangements for overseeing performance. These measures have already delivered a reduction in delays.
The Child Focused Model for private law now operates in 10 of 43 Family Court areas and seek to enhance the experience of children and families. They have demonstrated significant impact on timeliness. Cases are concluding between 11-30 weeks quicker under the model and outstanding caseloads have been reduced by up to 50%. The Government announced on 17 March its intention to roll this model out nationally by the end of this Parliament
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will have discussions with his counterparts in the European Union on case number INFR(2021)2001 relating to Poland's obligations in relation to the Brussels IIa Regulation.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government has no plans to discuss this infringement case with Ministers from EU countries. Officials in the Ministry of Justice and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office have been in contact with officials in the European Commission, which issued the infringement notice. Ministers and officials continue to raise relevant international child abduction cases with the Polish authorities at every appropriate opportunity.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he met President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria during his visit to the UK on 31 March 2026.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Secretary of State for Justice did not meet President Ahmed al-Sharaa of Syria during his visit to the UK on 31 March 2026.