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12.48 am
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (Jane Kennedy): I congratulate the right hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mrs. Bottomley) on winning an opportunity to debate divorce. Like me, she may have been a little anxious that we would be here much later in the morning, but we have now a good opportunity to debate a serious matter. I congratulate her on the way in which she presented her case. I agree with a large part of what she said, and the principles underlying the Family Law Act 1996 were, as she rightly said, supported by all parties.
I must take issue with the right hon. Lady over her interpretation of the decision taken by my noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor last June. However, I am grateful to her for faxing her document to my office today and for the helpful way in which she has approached the subject. I hope to reassure her on some points, but should her draw attention to two comments on information meetings in her document.
Towards the bottom of the page on which information meetings are discussed, it is recorded that during the debate it was said:
As the right hon. Lady said, the Family Law Act 1996 requires all divorcing or separating couples to attend information meetings, the purpose of which is to inform
couples about the issues that they would have to face, the options open to them and the services available to help them. It will also, as the right hon. Lady rightly pointed out, make them aware of the enormity of the decision that they are contemplating.
The interim results of the research into the pilot information meetings were found to be disappointing in a range of respects. That was particularly so given the great hopes that had been attached to the provision of compulsory information meetings in part II, and the effect that it was expected to have in saving marriages or, where that was not possible, in persuading people to settle their differences through mediation rather than by resorting to lawyers and the courts.
Sadly, the numbers of people taking up the offer of a meeting with a marriage counsellor and the numbers of people who attempted mediation after attending the information meeting pilots were lower than we had expected, and that disappointment was increased by the fact that those participating in the pilot information meetings were all volunteers. Requiring unwilling conscripts to attend a compulsory meeting might perhaps produce even more disappointing results.
It is worth emphasising that it was the preliminary results that the Government found disappointing, not the research itself. We are extremely grateful to all the voluntary bodies and others who helped to provide the pilot information meetings, and to the people who volunteered to attend. We are grateful also to Professor Janet Walker and her team at Newcastle university who have been conducting the research for us. There is certainly no criticism of any of them. However, the point of piloting a new initiative such as part II is to find out whether it works as intended, and whether it achieves the results that were desired. The evidence so far is that the information meetings as piloted have not achieved what we hoped they would.
Those results are only the preliminary results of a research project that continues, however. The right hon. Lady felt that we had shelved the research, so I want to reassure her on that point. My noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor has not made any final decision, but has decided to wait until the final research results are available, which will be this summer, before deciding how to proceed. As he explained in a speech given to the UK Family Law Conference at the time, family law is too sensitive and important for the Government to want to rush ahead with implementing legislation on a doctrinaire or speculative basis, without the best empirical information available, coupled with informed professional advice.
The least that a responsible Government could do before making a final decision on part II is to await the final results of the very extensive piloting and research that the right hon. Lady's Government commissioned, and for which the taxpayer pays. When we have those results, the Lord Chancellor will be in a position to decide how to proceed and to consider whether, for example, further research is necessary to do justice to those difficult questions.
The focus of divorce reform should not be based on dogma concerning fault or no fault divorce. Divorce law enables people to divorce on a no-fault basis after two
years apart, with consent, if that is what they wish. It is true that most people who divorce prefer to do so on the basis of adultery or unreasonable behaviour, rather than waiting two years. Even so, fewer than 10 per cent. of divorce cases are fought out through the courts. The vast majority are uncontested and dealt with on paper under the special procedure. The focus should therefore not be on the dogma, but on the principles that are set out in part I of the Family Law Act.
I take the opportunity to confirm that the Government remain committed to those principles: first, the institution of marriage must be supported as the best proven method of bringing up children, within a stable family relationship, by two parents; secondly, the parties to a marriage that may have broken down are to be encouraged to take all practical steps, by marriage counselling or otherwise, to save the marriage; and thirdly, a marriage that has irretrievably broken down and is being brought to an end should be brought to an end with minimal distress to the parties and to the children affected, and with questions dealt with in a way designed to promote as good a continuing relationship between the parties and any children affected as is possible in the circumstances.
All the work that the Government are doing in that area is intended to support those principles.
May I reassure the right hon. Lady further? I want to identify the work that we are undertaking. It is in three main areas: the provision of information for divorcing and separating couples; increased funding for marriage and relationship support agencies; and the further development of family mediation.
I will say a little more about each of those areas in the short time that I have. The provision of information to divorcing and separating couples is obviously sound. The interim results of research into the information meeting pilots have shown that the people who attended thought that the provision of information about marriage, mediation, the divorce process, the effect of divorce on children and so on had been extremely valuable to them.
Although the meetings were not as successful as the Government wished in terms of saving saveable marriages and diverting people to mediation, there is a need to provide information to divorcing and separating couples and to the children affected. Outside part II, therefore, we are taking forward the development of a series of leaflets that were originally used in the pilots, which will be made available later this year to divorcing and separating couples through the courts and other outlets: for example, citizens advice bureaux and doctors' surgeries.
We have asked the research team to undertake some further work, following up people who attended the pilot information meetings. The purpose of that work is to tell the Government how the information influenced people's behaviour later in the process. For example, we will learn whether information about the benefits of mediation would be more useful later in the process of divorce and separation.
On saving saveable marriages, the Government support marriage politically and financially. We recognise that marriage is the surest foundation for raising children and it remains the choice of the majority of people in Britain, but we recognise also that not all children are born to parents who are married.
It makes sense to seek to save saveable marriages and other relationships, especially where there are children. To that end, we are significantly increasing the money that my Department spends on marriage and on relationship support in England and Wales: to £4 million in 2000-01, rising to £5 million next year.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit the Surrey Family Mediation Service. I was impressed by the quality of its work; I commend it. We are committed to
supporting its development and are conscious of the expertise of people in that sector. We are listening to them carefully.
The apparent simplicity of this new provision is deceptive. Most people know what information is, and most have some idea of what going to a meeting is like. Yet putting these two elements together and transforming the concept of an individual information meeting from a "good idea" into reality has not been straightforward.
The document goes on to say:
The Lord Chancellor's recently expressed disappointment with the research findings in respect of the pilots illustrates this problem.
On rhetoric and reality, it says:
The evaluation of the pilots suggests that sometimes the elements of the information meeting may clash: saving marriages is an objective distinct from securing civilised divorce.
It is that part of the decision that was made last year that I want to expand on this evening.
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