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The Ministry of Justice has launched a comprehensive review of the family justice system, including both public law and private law.
“In public law this means looking at how the courts, with other agencies, manage cases involving children and the public care system,” Jonathan Djanogly, legal aid and civil justice minister, told the Commons today.
“In private law this means looking at contact and residence disputes between family members and will include considering how to increase the use of mediation when couples break up, and how best to provide greater access rights to non-resident parents and grandparents.
Djanogly said the review would examine the processes involved in granting divorces and awarding ancillary relief, but not the law in those areas.
The review will be carried out by the Family Justice Review Panel, the body set up earlier this year by Ken Clarke’s predecessor, Jack Straw, and chaired by David Norgrove, the chairman of the Pensions Regulator and of the Low Pay Commission.
Mr Justice McFarlane, the Family Division liaison judge for the West Midlands, will represent legal and judicial interests on the panel, appointed jointly by the MoJ, the Department for Education and the Welsh Assembly government.
Baroness Ritchie, a member of the Cafcass board, Dame Gillian Pugh, chair of National Children’s Bureau, John Coughlan, director of children’s services at Hampshire County Council and Keith Towler, the children’s commissioner for Wales, will also be on the panel.