NS Welcomes Government Deferral on Family Court Reporting

The NS has welcomed the Government’s announcement that it intends to defer consideration of whether or not to implement the new family court reporting measures until the Family Justice Review, commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, has published its final report in autumn next year. The reporting provisions of the Children Schools & Families Act 2010 were not brought into effect when the rest of the Act received Royal Assent in April this year.

The NS maintains that the court reporting provisions in the Act should not be brought into effect in their present form. The NS says the new regime will do nothing to increase accountability and transparency of the family court system as it would confer total anonymity on all those involved – not just the families themselves – and will place more restrictions on the media than is presently the case by apparently making it a contempt of court to publish any article referring to family proceedings, even if derived entirely from material already in the public domain and even if the parties are not identified, if the publication was not derived from an “authorised news report”.

The NS last month sent a submission to the House of Commons Justice Select Committee again reiterating its concerns in relation to the Act’s court reporting provisions and stating that it did not believe they should be implemented unless amended from their present form.

Senior judges have also expressed concern at the new reporting regime proposed by the Act. Lord Justice Munby, giving the Hershmann-Levy Memorial Lecture this summer, described the Act as a “lost opportunity”, and pointing out that “It is all too easy to attack the system when the system itself prevents anyone correcting the misrepresentations being fed to the media. Too relentless an enforcement of the privacy of family court proceedings is simply counterproductive.” More recently, Sir Nicholas Wall, President of the Family Division, has indicated that he too considers that it was right to defer implementation of the reporting provisions of the Act.

• Family Courts: New Act Won’t Enhance Openness and Public Confidence

For further information please contact Sue Oake on 020 7632 7463 or e-mail sue_oake@newspapersoc.org.uk.