My Lords, in Grand Committee my Amendment 56 attracted a good deal of support; there was a strong response from nine Members. That is why I am bringing it back on Report stage as Amendment 15.
On 9 December the Daily Mail carried an important article by Sir Paul Coleridge, a senior High Court judge with 42 years’ experience in the family and criminal courts. He drew attention to what he called the “social revolution” that has taken place in our society. Marriage, he says,
“has come to be seen as unfashionable, serial fatherhood is widespread and an ever-growing number of children are no longer brought up in stable households”.
The statistics about families that we have heard today seem to confirm that. For example, the Centre for Social Justice has recently calculated that family breakdown is now costing this country £46 billion a year—more than the defence budget. According to the Office for National Statistics, the proportion of children born to unmarried mothers last year hit a record 47.5%: that is, very nearly half. Almost half of all marriages, as well as a huge number of informal parenting partnerships, now end in divorce or separation. According to the Marriage Foundation, only 50% of children born today will be living with both their parents on their 16th birthday. What are known as “four-by-four families” are increasingly becoming a problem for schools in some disadvantaged areas. In case any noble Lords do not know what a “four-by-four family” is, it is a mother with four children by four different fathers.
Every society needs to be concerned about the way in which its children are brought up and about how they are being prepared for adult life, for citizenship and for their probable role as parents. In our society today, unwanted children, family breakdown and failure to provide a stable and supportive family for too many of the nation’s children as they grow up are seriously damaging the life chances of future generations.
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My Amendment 15 simply suggests that the Government should be more transparent in the way that they define the responsibilities of parenthood—and, perhaps more particularly, the duties of fathers. It may be that marriage as we know it has or will become optional, but I suggest that parental commitment cannot be optional, because it is a duty to the child. It can be avoided only by providing adequate alternative stability and loving care. To provide non-parental alternative stability and loving care for a child is not easy. It can be expensive unless the family is prepared to step in. A much better solution must surely be to help more parents to find fulfilment in raising their own child and to help parents do the job well by adequately preparing them for it before they start having children. Not having children may become a desirable option for some, but these things are not going to happen unless all young adults are aware of how much their child needs their love and care, and of the stability of growing up in a supportive family.
Amendment 15 suggests that a change in the wording of the law could make it clearer to all parents how important they are to their children. Since Grand Committee, I have had a very helpful meeting with the noble Lord, Lord McNally, on this subject. I also want to thank Relate, which has kindly prepared for me a very useful report on the current position of the definition of parental responsibilities and duties in the law, in this country and in other European countries. I think that all 29 countries that it examined realise that it is a difficult area for law, but few if any European countries have a less helpful definition than ours.
Undoubtedly, there is a need somehow to make it clear to parents and prospective parents that, whether they like it or not, all parents have an onerous responsibility to provide for the well-being of any child whom they bring into the world. During our meeting the noble Lord,
Lord McNally, suggested that the Government may be able to come forward with other proposals to encourage responsible and committed parenting that might be even more effective than changing the law as it defines the duties of a parent. If the Government are able to achieve that objective without changing the law, I accept that that may be the best way forward. I look forward to hearing the Government’s proposals. I beg to move.