The NSPCC has revealed that child cruelty and neglect offences in the UK have doubled over the last five years. There were 16,939 child cruelty and neglect offences recorded by police in 2017/18, up from 7,965 in 2012/13. Reports to the police included extreme cases of when a parent or carer deliberately neglected, assaulted, abandoned […]
Child support, contested divorce and surrogacy payments: The last week in family law
The Government has passed legislation to bring in various changes to the child support maintenance system. These include: provision for specified assets belonging to the non-resident parent (‘NRP’) to be calculated as having a weekly value which is taken into account in order to vary a maintenance calculation, the weekly value of the asset being […]
Civil partnership, prenuptial agreements and costs: The last week in family law
The Government has confirmed that it will introduce legislation in the next Parliamentary Session to extend civil partnerships to opposite-sex couples. The confirmation comes in a report by the Ministry of Justice to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the Government’s response to Human Rights judgments. The report refers to the Supreme Court decision […]
Sir James Munby, flexible court hours and increased court workload: The last week in family law
Sir James Munby, the former President of the Family Division, has been appointed Chair of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. The Observatory is being established by the Nuffield Foundation “to support the best possible decisions for children by improving the use of data and research evidence in the family justice system.” Sir James will oversee […]
Child maintenance figures, weddings and financial courts: The last week in family law
The Department for Work and Pensions (‘DWP’) has published the latest statistics on child maintenance arrangements made by separated parents after speaking to the Child Maintenance Options service (‘CM Options’). CM Options is a free service that provides impartial information and support to help parents make informed choices about child maintenance. The statistics show that […]
Child protection, supporting care leavers and Justice Week: The last week in family law
New figures released by the Department for Education show that the number of children supported through a child protection plan to keep them safe from harm increased by more than 2,700 over the past year, the biggest annual increase in four years. The figures show that 53,790 children were being supported through a child protection […]
Legal aid, Brexit, online advice and domestic abuse: The last week in family law
A “worrying level of complacency”, lack of clarity, and inadequate advice over the family justice system after Brexit will have a devastating knock-on effect on the UK family law courts, and ultimately children, the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee has warned. The Committee has written to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for […]
New-borns in care, secure accommodation and Cafcass figures: The last week in family law
Almost 17,000 new-born babies were taken into care in England in the last nine years, a new study from the Centre for Child and Family Justice Research at Lancaster University and the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has revealed. The study showed that 2,447 new-borns were subject to care proceedings within one week of birth from […]
Forced marriage, FGM and a UWO: The last week in family law
The Home Secretary Sajid Javid has announced a package of measures to tackle the crime of forced marriage. As part of this, a public consultation will be launched to determine whether there should be a mandatory requirement for professionals to report a forced marriage case to the authorities. This will help identify which professionals the […]
Divorce, child maintenance, mediation and civil partnerships: The last week in family law
The latest divorce statistics, for divorces in England and Wales in 2017, have been published by the Office for National Statistics (‘ONS’). The main points included that there were 101,669 divorces of opposite-sex couples in England and Wales in 2017, a decrease of 4.9% compared with 2016, but similar to the number seen in 2015; […]
