Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the Minister for pressing the same questions I have been pressing. I welcome what she said about putting information onto the form about whether or not the couple have undertaken a meeting about mediation and the court taking that into account. I also welcome what she said about in-court conciliation. Judges will confirm what she said about its effectiveness. The noble Baroness said that there are cases where it may not be appropriate for this meeting to take place but I would draw her attention to the fact that my amendment takes that into account by stating,"““unless by order of the court””." She also said that she disagrees with me about the point at which the atmosphere changes. She may be right. Our earlier amendment tried to address that but she threw it out. If she had not told us that that amendment fell foul of human rights legislation and it had been carried, we would have had this meeting long before any decision was made to apply to the court. However, it was a very positive answer from the Minister. I am grateful to her. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.