Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, this has been an interesting debate and I am grateful to all who have spoken. The noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, asked me what adding the word ““reasonable”” would achieve. It would act as a signpost to anyone wishing to dispute a contact arrangement. The signpost would say that to challenge a contact arrangement, one would need to do so on the ground of reasonableness. The court, and in certain instances the Court of Appeal, would rule on what constituted a good reason and the circumstances in which the guidelines would apply. The Government appear to believe that they can arrive at the same end point without that change. But they have omitted to see that unless we change the law in the kind of way that I propose, and have court-backed guidelines with a presumption of reasonable contact, there will be no incentive for a resident parent to reach an agreement out of court. Why? Because the resident parent knows, or will soon realise, that in the eyes of the court every case is different, and that all material contact can be brought to an end for no material reason. We have to move away from that. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, challenged that interpretation. She said that in her experience non-resident parents do not have to argue for contact, but they feel as if they do. They feel it because they know that case law gives them a presumption of contact, and that is all. Many non-resident parents go back to court time after time to argue for the tiniest quantum of extra contact.