Family courts in England and Wales ‘not good enough’ for women and children, minister says | Violence against women and girls
Family courts are “not good enough” and have treated women and children unfairly for decades, a government minister has said.
Announcing a major overhaul of the family justice system in England and Wales, which will play a central role in “rebalancing” the family courts, Alison Levitt said the often brutal legal showdowns would be replaced by a “problem-solving”, child-focused model.
It is part of a move across the Justice Department to tackle the backlog in courts, the department said child focused courts Focusing on child welfare and seeking out-of-court solutions, these programs have reduced child trauma, reduced case backlogs, and shortened wait times.
They will now become the standard model for all chapter 8 cases involving child arrangements, including where the child lives, who he or she communicates with, and how much time he or she spends with each parent.
Her Labor colleague, who was Keir Starmer’s chief legal adviser when he was director of public prosecutions, said she had been repeatedly accused of sexism since becoming a minister last autumn. Courts and Court BillIt passed its second reading earlier this month.
Levitt said: “It’s very clear that historically women have been victimized [in the justice system]“There is a rationale for taking measures to educate them, to make it more equitable for them,” Levitt said. “Everywhere in the justice system, including the family justice system,” Levitt said. [victims] “They are not re-traumatized by going to family courts, for example,” he said.
Asked whether he believed the justice system, from what he had observed since being called to the bar in 1988, treated women fairly, Levitt said it was “more complicated” than the system being sexist, but added: “I don’t think women are treated fairly, but things are getting better. And do I think it will be fairer by the end of this parliament? Absolutely.”
Advocates for family court reform have long argued that abusers use the family courts system to control their former partners, including making counterclaims to “alienate” the child.
Following a series of scandals about unregulated and sometimes unqualified “experts” on parental alienation, Levitt said the concept “is not something that can be defined or scientifically proven in any way, shape or form.”
Asked how victims of domestic violence are treated in the family courts, he said: “This is not good enough… By the time we leave office, the situation will have improved in terms of violence against women and girls because it is an uncivilized way of behaving. It’s not fair. If you don’t care about that, you don’t care about justice.”
Citing the example of a “fact-finding” hearing in which victims were “cross-examined uphill and down valley,” Levitt said: “I don’t understand [stopping] This is sexism. I see this as a rebalancing. If there was an injustice to begin with, it is not sexism to try to correct it.”
Levitt said there would be more action in the Victims and Courts bill. abdicate parental responsibility It will also provide greater protection for those convicted of a serious sexual offense against a child and if a child is born as a result of rape.
Ministers say this child focused court pilotIntroduced during the last government term in Dorset and North Wales in 2022 and expanded to a further 10 of the 43 court areas, it will now add a further 13 court areas, with the remainder to follow before the end of this parliament.
Justice Minister David Lammy said the new model would help families and children in conflict more quickly. Ministry of Justice figures show the average time taken by a court in Birmingham fell from 53 days in the three months to August 2023 to 23 days in the same period in 2025; The open caseload fell from 1,456 in August 2003 to 648 two years later.
“For a child, waiting every month to find out where you will live can feel like an eternity,” she said. “This approach showed dramatic results in pilots, cutting backlogs in half and resolving cases up to seven and a half months faster. For a child whose family is torn apart and for victims of abuse, this difference is life-changing.”
He said that unlike the old system, in the new model, family circumstances, including allegations of domestic violence, would be examined pre-trial from the outset by Cafcass, Cafcass Cymru or a local authority and independent domestic violence advisers.
The pilot also sees the Child Impact Report being ordered at the start of a process – a move made by Andrew McFarlane, head of the family law department. Called a “game changer” because it enabled the courts to understand early the impact of the dispute on the child and resulted in fewer hearings, which benefited “families and indeed the whole system”.
Lisa Harker, director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, said the expansion was welcome but added: “It is important that we measure how children experience cases and whether their lives improve, not just how quickly decisions are made.”
