Lord Justice Munby recently delivered the annual Hershman Levy Lecture on the topic of Transparency and the Children Schools and Families Act 2010, in which he referred to my recent article in Family Law, republished here. You can read the lecture here on the Association of Lawyers for Children website (I’ve downloaded it here: HERSHMAN_LEVY_MEMORIAL_LECTURE_2010, as the link to the ALC website seems not to work all the time).
Tag Archives: open justice
PUBLICATION OF INFORMATION IN CHILDREN MATTERS – CHILDREN SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES ACT 2010
The Children Schools and Families Act 2010 made its way through ‘wash up’ and received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010.
Amongst other things (not dealt with here) it makes substantial and controversial changes to the law concerning the publication of material relating to family proceedings, which are summarised below. There will be repeals and amendments of a number of pieces of primary legislation, in particular s12 Administration of Justice Act 1960, s97 Children Act 1989 and s39 Children and Young Persons act 1933.
The relevant provisions are contained in Part II of the Act, and they apply to all relevant family proceedings at which the public are / were not entitled to be present. Broadly: divorce, civil partnership and financial matters are not ‘relevant family proceedings’. References to ‘the Act’ in this article refer to Part II and its associated schedules. At the time of writing the Act is not yet in force and no date for its implementation has been announced.
Washed up and hung out to air in public
Children Schools & Fudge Act 2010?
Further to my previous post on the passing of the Children Schools & Families Act 2010, The Times has published an article about the new provisions which is spot on: it identifies – importantly – that the new law, when it is brought into force, will in fact be more restrictive than the existing privacy rules covering children proceedings. In particular, not only will anonymity rules apply to the children themselves, but they will also apply to anyone involved in the proceedings, apart from professional witnesses.
So much for open justice. The Times says ‘a Fudge’, I’m inclined to agree.
PS Does anybody know when this is likely to be brought into force?