Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

I shall study what the noble Earl has said with great care. As I understand it, the amendment simply returns us to the issue of reasonable contact that we debated earlier. We were not minded to move on that for all the reasons I gave. We did not believe that it was necessary or desirable to make this change. It was not necessary because we believe that the courts do make reasonable judgments in these cases; and it was not desirable if the intention was to change that judgment by having a presumption which was different from the paramount interests of the child. That is my succinct response to the amendment of the noble Earl, but I shall study with care what he has said about the cases he gave and I will write to him.