20/01
16 January 2001
DIVORCE LAW REFORM - GOVERNMENT PROPOSES TO REPEAL
PART II OF THE FAMILY LAW ACT 1996
Part II does not meet Government objectives of saving marriages or
helping divorcing couples to resolve problems with a minimum of
acrimony
The Government intends to ask Parliament to repeal Part II of the
Family Law Act 1996, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, announced today.
The provisions of Part II of the Act in relation to divorce have not been
implemented. Compulsory information meetings, intended to help
couples either to save their marriages or to end them with minimum
distress and acrimony, are central to Part II. Different types of
information meetings have been tested in pilot schemes for two years.
But the research concludes that none of the six models of meeting was
good enough for the implementation of Part II on a nationwide basis, the
Lord Chancellor said.
The information meetings pilot schemes were launched in June 1997.
Six models of information meeting were piloted. The programme was
completed in June 1999 - when the Lord Chancellor confirmed
that preliminary results of the pilot schemes were disappointing.
The Final Evaluation Report was presented to the Lord Chancellor by
the Newcastle Centre for Family Studies in September 2000. The
Lord Chancellor expressed his gratitude to Professor Janet Walker
and the research team at Newcastle University for the very detailed
and informative report which they had produced.
The research showed that, although those attending valued the provision
of information, the information meetings were not effective in helping
most people to save their marriages, as these meetings came too late.
The evidence showed that the meeting tended to incline those who
were uncertain about their marriage towards divorce. They were too
inflexible to provide people with information tailored to their personal
needs. In addition, in the great majority of cases, only the person
petitioning for divorce attended the meeting, but marriage counselling,
conciliatory divorce and mediation depend for their success on the
willing involvement of both parties.
The Lord Chancellor said that his concerns did not only relate to
information meetings. The complex procedures in Part II would be likely
to lead to significant delay and uncertainty in resolving arrangements for
the future. The Government was concerned that this delay would not be
in the best interests of either couples or their children. "The Act's
complexity is likely to cause a great deal of uncertainty over the divorce
process which will be unhelpful for families at what is always a difficult
and emotional time."
The Lord Chancellor indicated that he does not believe Part II will
fulfil the principles of Part I, which focus on saving saveable marriages,
and where marriages do break down, bringing them to an end with the
minimum distress to the parties and children affected. He emphasised the
Government's commitment to achieving these principles.
Lord Irvine said, "The Government is committed to supporting marriage
and to supporting families when relationships fail, especially when there
are children involved. But this very comprehensive research, together
with other recent valuable research in the field, has shown that Part II of
the Family Law Act is not the best way of achieving those aims. The
Government is not therefore satisfied that it would be right to proceed
with the implementation of Part II and proposes to ask Parliament to
repeal it once a suitable legislative opportunity occurs".
The Government will build on the evidence provided by research to
consider how best to provide families experiencing relationship difficulties,
in particular those with children, with the information and support
that they want at the time that they need it. Lord Irvine said "The
Government has taken forward a wide range of measures over the past
three years to help families, including establishing the new Children's
Fund and the Children and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service,
improving maternity and parental leave arrangements, and increasing
funding for marriage and relationship support to a total of £5 million
per annum by 2002-2003".
Notes for Editors:
1. The Family Law Act received Royal Assent on 4 July 1996. Parts I,
and IV (relating to domestic violence) are now in force. Part III (which
amended the Legal Aid Act 1988 in relation to the provision of state-
funded mediation) has been incorporated in the Funding Code for the
Community Legal Service following repeal of the 1988 Act by the Access to
Justice Act 1999. Part II of the Act would change the arrangements for
divorce. As well as requiring married couples to attend information
meetings, a system of divorce as a process over time would replace current
arrangements. The decision regarding Part II does not affect section
22 relating to the funding of marriage support services, which is in force
and will remain so.
2. Members of the public may obtain a copy of the 96 page summary of the
Final Evaluation Report and the 5 page Key Findings from the Research from
Peter Fell, Family Policy Division, Lord Chancellor's Department (tel. 020
7210 1249), or on the LCD website: www.lcd.gov.uk; members of the
press may obtain copies from the LCD press office (tel. 020 7210 8512/13);
the 3 volumes of the full report will be available on the LCD website shortly.
3. Other relevant research studies are "Paths to Justice" by Professor Hazel
Genn; "Monitoring Publicly Funded Family Mediation" by Professor Gwynn
Davis; and "Family Lawyers" by John Eekelaar, Mavis Maclean and Sarah
Beinart.
ENDS
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