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Expert Witnesses In Family Court Proceedings

EDM number 2857 in 2010-12, proposed by John Hemming on 13/03/2012.
Categorised under the topics of Children and families and Courts.

That this House notes the report by Professor Jane Ireland, commissioned by the Family Justice Council, in which she studied 100 expert reports from family court proceedings; further notes that 20 per cent. were written by people not qualified, a further 20 per cent. by people writing outside their knowledge and qualifications, 65 per cent. were `poor' or `very poor' and 90 per cent. were written by people who were not in current practice; recognises that this raises a massive question as to whether or not the judgments of the courts in the majority of care proceedings are reliable; and calls for a substantial further opening of the courts to enable the quality of evidence given to be subject to adequate real time scrutiny.

This motion has been signed by a total of 20 MPs.

MPDateConstituencyPartyType
Alan Meale09/03/2012MansfieldLabourSeconded
Jim Dobbin09/03/2012Heywood and MiddletonLabourSeconded
Michael Crockart09/03/2012Edinburgh WestLiberal DemocratSeconded
John Hemming13/03/2012Birmingham, YardleyLiberal DemocratProposed
Bob Russell13/03/2012ColchesterLiberal DemocratSeconded
Mike Hancock15/03/2012Portsmouth SouthLiberal DemocratSeconded
John Leech20/03/2012Manchester, WithingtonLiberal DemocratSigned
Glenda Jackson21/03/2012Hampstead and KilburnLabourSigned
David Davis21/03/2012Haltemprice and HowdenConservativeSigned
Julian Huppert26/03/2012CambridgeLiberal DemocratSigned
David Heyes27/03/2012Ashton-under-LyneLabourSigned
Lorely Burt27/03/2012SolihullLiberal DemocratSigned
David Morris16/04/2012Morecambe and LunesdaleConservativeSigned
Adrian Sanders17/04/2012TorbayLiberal DemocratSigned
Kevin Barron18/04/2012Rother ValleyLabourSigned
Martin Horwood18/04/2012CheltenhamLiberal DemocratSigned
Lindsay Roy19/04/2012GlenrothesLabourSigned
Nick Smith23/04/2012Blaenau GwentLabourSigned
Kate Hoey30/04/2012VauxhallLabourSigned
Paul Flynn30/04/2012Newport WestLabourSigned

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