Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, the noble Earl asked if I could express sympathy with his intentions and offer some mild words of comfort. That was not a very demanding threshold; I am used to more demanding thresholds. Certainly I am in a position to offer him sympathy and, I hope, rather more than mild comfort that we are able to achieve the objectives he has set out. The noble Earl’s Amendment No 25A would ensure that comprehensive and timely investigations into allegations of domestic violence and abuse are made. The noble Earl’s Amendment No. 24 would put sanctions in place on those who make false allegations. Amendment No. 25A makes the important point, with which we entirely sympathise, about the need to hold comprehensive and timely investigations. We believe that Amendment No. 27, tabled by my noble friends Lady Gould and Lady Thornton, and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, will ensure that that takes place. It will ensure that there are risk assessments in all cases where domestic violence is alleged. We would expect those investigations to be timely because they will in most cases be precipitated by the new gateway form which is completed as soon as parents enter the system. In cases where allegations of domestic violence or abuse are made we would expect an investigation to take place pretty well immediately after that so we would expect the time lines the noble Earl has set out in his amendments to be adopted, but we do not think it is necessary to put them on the face of the legislation. We entirely share the objective that he seeks to achieve. We believe that the new and more robust statutory framework put in place by Amendment No. 27, with the requirement for risk assessments, will achieve what the noble Earl seeks to achieve. Amendment No. 24 seeks to put in place sanctions to discourage false allegations of domestic violence or harm. The amendment proposes that the court should take such allegations into account when making contact decisions. It may also treat them as an aggravating factor when considering an enforcement order or financial compensation order. We again entirely share the concerns underlying this amendment, but we hope that it will not be pressed for two reasons. First, allegations of domestic violence or harm will now be assessed at the outset of contact proceedings and in any event under Amendment No. 27, which has just been accepted by the House. We believe that the fact that there will be rapid and comprehensive assessment of any allegations will be a very significant deterrent to making false allegations. So we believe that that objective will be secured. Secondly, there may be some cases where it is in the child’s best interests to have a particular level of contact with an accusing parent despite the fact of the accusations. The courts will need to take account of that. But where the courts believe that a penalty would be appropriate and would be consistent with the best interests of the child, they already have the full powers at their disposal to make such a penalty, and indeed, they have been doing so. Only this year the Court of Appeal made a costs order against a parent who made such false allegations, and ensured that serious action was taken in that case. The case in question is Re T, which made the attitude of the courts very clear. In that case on the ending of a marriage various agreements and orders for contact had been made which had all faltered almost immediately. The resident parent then made allegations of sexual abuse. These were investigated and found to be false. The falsely accused parent had expended considerable sums in defending the actions. The Court of Appeal confirmed the decision that the resident parent pay costs to the non-resident parent. Cost orders are unusual in family proceedings since the courts are anxious to avoid seeming to punish one parent if that might lead to reduced co-operation between them. However, in this case Lord Justice Wall could not have been clearer in his judgment on upholding the application for costs. He said:"““We do not think that the orders for costs which we have upheld in the instant case are either likely to or should deter a resident parent from advancing a reasonable opposition to contact which is genuinely based on a proper perception of the child’s interests. But those who unreasonably frustrate contact need to be aware that the court has the power to make cost orders in appropriate cases and that the consequences of such unreasonable behaviour may well be an order for costs made against the resident parent who has behaved unreasonably””." As I said, that is a Court of Appeal judgment made this year. The decision demonstrates that the courts can and do take appropriate action in cases of false allegations. They are very mindful of the concerns raised by the noble Earl. In the context of the more robust regime that we are putting in place for risk assessments, which we believe will also be a significant deterrent to false allegations, I hope that the noble Earl will feel able to withdraw his amendments.