Family Courts

EDM number 127 in 2007-08, proposed by John Hemming on 07/11/2007.
Categorised under the topics of Administration of justice, Children's social services, Civil law, Courts and Family law.

That this House regrets the Government's proposals to retain secrecy within the family courts; believes that this secrecy permeates bad practice throughout the whole system of children services; feels that it is possible to protect the identity of the child while allowing parents to talk and seek advice publicly about their treatment in the family courts, and that professional witnesses should be uniquely identified to monitor consistency; further believes that every case should have an anonymised judgement handed to the parents that they can discuss publicly; and calls on the Government to recognise that there are very serious problems in the system that have been postponed rather than resolved by the limited proposals contained within the consultation document.

This motion has been signed by a total of 27 MPs.