Government in call for more secrecy in Family Courts

5.02.05pm GMT Thu 21st Jun 2007

The Government have today released a consultation which calls for more secrecy in the Family Courts. John Hemming MP, Chairman of Justice for Families, has said, "The government are actually proposing more secrecy in family court proceedings than exists at the moment. There are clearly masses of miscarriages of justice. However, the government want to prevent parents campaigning against the miscarriages of justice by preventing parents talking about their children after a court case."

"This is fundamentally wrong. There is a reasonable argument for the Family Courts to act in a similar manner to youth justice. However, for the government to aim to tighten up secrecy by introducing new rules to prevent the press talking about the parents and children in a case after the end of the case is basically wrong."

"Babies are being taken into care merely to satisfy the government's adoption targets. The government's response, however, is to act to stop parents complaining about this."

"The secrecy in the family courts acts generally to protect misbehaviour by some professionals rather than children. In other countries things are not as secret - although these is a reasonable amount of privacy."