Parliamentary Report on Family Courts

The Constitutional Affairs Committee has welcomed the Government's assurances that it has accepted the Committee's insistence that there should be no reduction in the number of legal advisers in magistrates' courts. The Government was responding to the Committee's report on the family courts Family Justice: the operation of the family courts revisited, published in June, see [2006] Fam Law 623. The Committee had expressed concern that continuing difficulties with resources appeared to be hindering the judiciary from reducing delays in the family court and warned that any move to reduce the number of legal advisers in family proceedings court as part of budget cuts would cause additional difficulties. The Government's response, published on 21 November 2006, said there would be no reduction. The Government's Response to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committees Report (Cm 6971) can be found on the Department for Constitutional Affairs Website: www.dca.gov.uk.