Family Justice

: With the leave of the House, I should like to take a moment to thank the Members who have participated today. They might have been few in number, but they are high in quality and in their commitment to the subject. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) ranged over many of the issues that I had raised plus one or two others, and the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald), speaking on behalf of his party, reflected his personal knowledge and experience of the matters in a constructive way. Not only has this debate been constructive, but the process in which we are engaged is constructive too. We are egging the Government on to pay extra attention to issues that we all think are important and need attention. We are reviewing what the Government have done so far, and saying what we hope they will do in the near future, alongside the judiciary and agencies such as CAFCASS, and we are trying, as the Minister kindly said, to channel the emotions and anxieties that attend such matters into an effort to get the system to work for children. That is what this is all about. The Minister has said that a number of issues will best be resolved when she and her hon. Friends come to address us about the Children and Adoption Bill on Second Reading and in Committee. Some of them may be the issues on which we feel that we have not got much further today—perhaps we will do so then. Let me pick up on a few of those issues. I am still not clear about the Government's thinking on what to do, having recognised that one cannot have two legal presumptions. The paramountcy of the welfare of the children cannot be disturbed by an alternative presumption. That is my view, that of my Committee and of the Minister. But how do we best reflect the United Nations charter right that the child should have the opportunity of contact with both parents? It is in the interests of the child in most cases for that to happen. In what process can we best do that? We used the Children Act welfare checklist, but other suggestions have been made. We need to clarify how best we can achieve that. I still need to know where the Government thinking is going on how far we can get people to the table to consider mediation, using an element of compulsion to get them to that point. That will come up in the context of the Bill. There are one or two other issues where we want to hear more about progress, but we have had some definite announcements today. For example, the transparency consultation paper will come out at the end of February or the beginning of March. We have had a helpful indication that there will be a sampling of what happens in five court centres on the continuity of judges. That, too, is very helpful. We have had an indication that the Minister will get back to the Committee on whether the system is getting cases back into court within the 10 days that we want to achieve. Those are all positive steps forward. They illustrate a constructive process, which will go on. There are a few aspects of this matter that have passed beyond the remit of my Committee: the primary responsibility for CAFCASS now rests with the Minister for Children and Families who has been moved since we started all this into the Department for Education and Skills and therefore to some extent into the purview of that Select Committee. We have continued to be interested because CAFCASS is a servant of the courts for which the Department for Constitutional Affairs is responsible. We will certainly continue to take an interest in these matters, as will the hon. Members who have spoken today. I am grateful to everyone for their participation in this process. Question put and agreed to.