Repealing ‘the presumption” – an explainer

by reporting watch team | Oct 28, 2025 | Comment, FCReportingWatch, Trends

Section 1(2A) of the Children Act 1989, as amended in 2014, states that, with regard to applications for child arrangements orders under Section 8: A court … is as respects each parent … to presume, unless the contrary is shown, that involvement of that parent in the...

Government announces outcome of the review into the family court presumption of involvement of both parents in a child’s life

by reporting watch team | Oct 22, 2025 | FCReportingWatch, FOI, Trends

We’ve sent in a series of requests under the Freedom of Information Act about the review of the presumption of parental involvement since the ‘urgent’ review was announced by the government in 2020. We have been asking about the continued delay in publishing the...

Updates on the operation of family courts – mainly about delay

by Julie Doughty | Dec 13, 2024 | Comment, FCReportingWatch, Resources, Trends

Two important resources for family court users and professionals were published at the end of November: a webinar to ‘Refocus on the Public Law Outline (PLO)’ and a Family Court Annual Report that covers the year 2023-2024 – although it’s the first annual report...

Why we don’t know what’s going on in family courts

by reporting watch team | Aug 14, 2024 | FCReportingWatch, Transparency News, Trends

We hear a lot about ‘secret’ family courts because of reporting restrictions and family privacy, but there is more to genuine transparency than holding processes out in the open. To understand how a system is operating we need information based on reliable data across...

Domestic abuse and the Financial Remedies Court

by Guest Post | Aug 8, 2024 | Analysis, Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Trends

This is a guest post from Femi Ogunlende. Femi is a barrister at No5 Chambers. This post discusses the current approach to domestic abuse in financial remedy proceedings. For those short on time and unable to read the post in full, the key conclusions you need to be...

Written Advocacy – who is it for?

by Guest Post | May 30, 2024 | Cases, Comment, FCReportingWatch, Trends

This post is a guest post by Anna Yarde. Anna is a children barrister at Harcourt Chambers. This commentary is intended for lawyers to read and for lay parties to benefit from. A Guide for Lawyers – Improving Transparency in the Family Court Written Advocacy –...