New provisions on the disclosure of information
Adoption and Children Bill
10:10 am
I think that the difference is that with the care order example one is talking about a court making a judgment on whether the child is likely to suffer significant harm, which is a tangible concept, but ``significantly better'' asks the court to make a relative judgment. I am not sure that including such a requirement adds anything to what the court will be obliged to do anyway under clause 1(4). How will a court decide that it is ``so significantly better'' as to justify? It would need to consider benefits to the child, views of the parents and everything that is in the checklist, weigh them all up in the context of the various parties' rights and reach a decision. I am not sure that ``so significantly better'' adds anything and I do not think that the parallel with a care order is exact because in that case one is talking about harm, whereas this is a comparative situation—``significantly better'' or not, what does that mean?