The Lord Chancellor’s Department issued a consultation paper entitled ‘Contact Between Children and Violent Parents. Consultation Paper on the question of Parental Contact in Cases where there is Domestic Violence’. Domestic Violence was a subject, which the Children Act Sub-Committee had on its agenda but had been unable to address prior to its dissolution in the summer of 1997. The Advisory Board on Family Law began to study this important aspect of family law cases with two consultation exercises, targeted principally at the judiciary and the family court welfare service, in November 1997 and April 1998. This third document was more detailed and had a much wider circulation.

The consultation paper adopted the definition of Domestic Violence used by the Chief Officers of Probation, which encompasses ‘physical, sexual or emotional abuse ’. It considered how the courts should handle cases in which an application for contact is made by a non-resident parent who has (or allegedly has) a history of violence against the child, the child’s other parent, or other children. It proposed good practice guidelines for courts dealing with cases where domestic violence is cited as a reason to refuse or limit contact, invited comments on draft guidelines and asked a series of specific questions of respondents.

The thrust of the consultation was in relation to private law applications, but the issues raised are pertinent to children across the entire range of family proceedings. Section 2 of the consultation paper set out the statutory framework in both private and public law jurisdiction, then cited a number of relevant reported cases and closed with a useful summary of the propositions to be derived from that case law. An extract from Sir Thomas Bingham’s judgement in Re O (A Minor) (Contact: imposition of conditions) [1995] 2 FLR 124 was included as an appendix to the consultation paper. Also appended were Sections 3 to 5 of New Zealand’s Domestic Violence Act 1995, which include more radical and comprehensive definitions of domestic violence and of the object of the legislation than have been evident in any previous statutes.

The Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Board on Family Law has received and considered almost two hundred responses and will report, early in March 2,000, to the Lord Chancellor’s Department.  

The following response on behalf of NAGALRO was drafted by Veronica Swenson and Carol Edwards and adopted by the Council. Each question is reproduced in full below, with the NAGALRO response. There follow two sections of notes dealing with the subjects of violence and child development and with the proposed Good Practice Guidelines.