Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I think that we would all agree with the sentiments expressed by the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth. It is important that promises made to children are kept. Distress can be caused by a parent not showing up for a contact arrangement, to which a child may have looked forward, and, equally, by one parent refusing to allow a child to see the other parent. I accept the sentiment behind these amendments. As the noble Earl quite rightly predicted, I do say that the courts are able to do this already. They can use their discretion; they can decide what form a new order should take; and, if it is thought that it should embody some form of compensatory contact for the child’s sake, that indeed is what they will order. We know that in his evidence to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, in answer to a question from Dr Whitehead regarding whether consideration had been given to the idea of financial compensatory contact, Lord Justice Wall said:"““As a matter of practice, it happens. That is a regular order that would be made. If a contract is frustrated on a particular occasion, the court will almost invariably seek to make it up in some way or another””." Therefore, although I understand the noble Earl’s sentiment, the evidence from Lord Justice Wall is that that would be the case. Underlying that, what really matters is the speed with which it is done. One of the issues raised by fathers’ groups is that they are denied contact because Mum is not at home with the child when they visit or because something else has happened, and it takes quite a long time for them to return to court to deal with the issue. That is why we are extending the monitoring role of CAFCASS. Under Clause 2 of the Bill, the court can ask the CAFCASS officer to arrange for the monitoring of contact in any case. The purpose of that is to be able to say, ““Did contact happen?”” and, if it did not, to enable the CAFCASS officer to apply to the court to have the parent brought back before it very quickly. In that event, one would not end up with the situation, about which some fathers have spoken to me, that a new status quo evolves in which the parent does not see the child very much and feels that the courts are reluctant to undermine that when that is what the child has been used to. The court has the power to bring back before it quickly any offending parent, there is some evidence from the judges that that happens, and they certainly feel very strongly about it. I therefore hope that we can resolve this important issue and that parents will be able to feel that if they do not get contact they will be given compensatory time and that it will be dealt with swiftly. On that basis, I hope that the noble Earl will feel able to withdraw his amendment.