Children and Adoption Bill

My hon. Friend makes a very good point, and I shall briefly refer to a call for greater transparency in the court system, as that would go some way to address people’s concerns about what may be going on. Decisions may be made for perfectly good reasons, but they are not explained properly and can then be misinterpreted and subject to all sorts of other problems. I will mention that in a minute. Too many contact orders are breached, which is not good for the parents and the extended family, but, above all, it is not good for the children themselves. Everything we do in our approach to the Bill, as with all other children’s legislation, will be guided by the principle that the welfare of the children is paramount, which is set out in the Children Act 1989 and is still relevant today. What are we trying to do with the Bill? It is in everyone’s interests to promote stable family life and, wherever possible, to maximise the amount of meaningful quality time spent with both parents, whether or not they are living together. However, it is not a question of the rights of parents to have access to their children, but rather that the child has a right of maximum access to his or her parents, unless there is an overwhelming case that doing so would be harmful to that child. The best blend of both parents is what we need to achieve. It is rarely, if ever, the fault of a child that his or her parents separate, and children should not suffer even more as a result by not having equal access to both parents. Surely, that was the principle set out by Ministers in the Green Paper, which said:"““After separation, both parents should have responsibility for, and a meaningful relationship with, their children, so long as it is safe. This is the view of most people in our society.””" In the debate in the upper House, Lord Adonis said:"““We fully support the position established in case law that children normally benefit from a meaningful relationship with both parents following separation, so long as it is safe””.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 29 June 2005; Vol. 673, c. 251.]" We entirely agree. Parents do not stop being parents simply because they are no longer partners.