New Clause 6 - Compensatory contact
Children and Adoption Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Jeremy Wright (Rugby and Kenilworth, Conservative)
I support the new clauses. I shall address an argument that the Minister has made and, for all I know, will make against them—an argument based on the principle of the paramountcy of the welfare of the child that the new clauses are for use by parents as weapons in a war using contact as the point of argument between them. That is not at all what the new clauses are about.
As my hon. Friend said, the clauses are not about whether one parent has the right to see their child for a particular length of time. They are substantially about the right of the child to have the contact with both parents that the court has decided is appropriate and has ordered in the original contact order. Far from moving away from the principle of the paramountcy of the welfare of the child, the new clauses underline it. The contact order made in the first place will have meaning and the child will be able to take advantage of the degree and level of contact that the court originally thought appropriate only if the courts can make an order for compensatory contact.
I refer Committee members to the wording of new clause 6, particularly subsection (2)(b), which says that the court
“may make an order granting additional contact time between the person and the child concerned with a view to mitigating the effect of the breach.”
That is the whole point of the new clauses, which is why they should have the Committee’s support.