Clause 1 - Contact activity directions and conditions
Children and Adoption Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Ann Coffey (PPS (Rt Hon Alistair Darling, Secretary of State), Scotland Office; Stockport, Labour)
My difficulty with the court’s identifying a specific shortcoming is that generally the inability of both parents to agree with and abide by a contact arrangement probably has something to do with the nature of the breakdown of their relationship, their feelings about each other and various other factors. It would be difficult to identify a specific shortcoming within all that. Given that there is often a generality of factors, it would be much better to let the court decide what generality of contact activity might be used to address the problem. For example, if the parents cannot see beyond their own needs to those of the child, then sending them to parenting guidance classes and the like gives the court discretion to deal with the generality of the problem. Perhaps the amendment would tie down the court too much to identifying something that cannot be identified so specifically.