Children and Adoption Bill [Lords]

All of us are aware that in discussing these matters we are discussing, in a sense, the second-best option, and whatever our answers will be, they are liable to have untoward consequences and not cover the wide range of cases that we all come across in our constituency surgeries. I rise briefly to support my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) in his desire for a change in the law to ensure that the resident parent has an ever-present understanding that the contact arrangements are serious and need to be carried through, and that if they are not that could have a permanent effect on the way in which arrangements for the children are made. I have great sympathy with what the hon. Member for Luton, South (Margaret Moran) said—at some length—and I understand what she is seeking to do. However, in my constituency the fundamental problem is often that, following a court decision, the parent who has the maximum amount of custody frequently feels very little need to carry through the other part of the arrangements. In a sense, they sometimes think of it as a battle won and, having won it, they feel that almost any excuse—and sometimes none—is perfectly reasonable because the child has now been consigned to their care, rather than to that of their partner. My hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham made an important point, because what he proposes in his new clause is clear and comprehensible to a very wide range of the people affected. At present, the law is such that, to a great degree, courts hesitate to impose a contempt of court order, which is the only means that they have of insisting on the agreement being carried through. Therefore, I commend the proposal to the House. It is important that the Government take it on board. At the same time, I want to underline what several Members have said about the paucity of sensible information and research. The hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) pointed out the surprising fact that, even when the research has been done, it does not seem to make a difference to the Government’s decisions. There are many other areas in this whole fraught consideration in which the research is just not there. We are therefore dealing with a difficult, delicate and damaging area of law with much less information that we would have in many less important areas. As we now live in a society in which the attitude towards marriage and the upbringing of children has become increasingly less serious and secure, to the disbenefit of the children, we have to spend more time and resources in ensuring that the decisions that we make in these circumstances are based on good science, so to speak, rather than anecdotal attitudes and efforts. In commending the proposal from my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham, I ask the Government again to support what has been said in another place and to widen their determination to provide for the House in future the kind of information on which sensible decisions can be made in these delicate areas.