Welcome to another week.

A seminar being held in April 2018 by a Policy Forum owned by the head of a Conservative PR agency in London, is set to look at issues surrounding private and public family law. Guests include President of the Family Division, Sir James Munby and Deputy Director of the Family Justice Policy Division, Dr Elizabeth Gibby.

We rang up the company to try to find out more  about who was organising this seminar, and whether it was open to the public. The forum, which is a registered company, has a  website, however it does not offer any information about members of the company or its political affiliation. There is a telephone number with an area code for Bracknell, in Berkshire, on the site, so we decided to call.

We rang the company twice, and spoke to two receptionists. Both receptionists responded defensively to our queries, and once we started to ask about the individuals involved in putting together the seminar, one receptionist then demanded the name and details of our organisation, which we gave her. Both receptionists refused to tell us the names of the CEO, founder or staff members responsible for these seminar events, telling us instead that they had no idea who was running the Forum.

So we decided to do a little digging.

The event, entitled, “The future for family justice in England and Wales – court reform, divorce law and care proceedings,” has been put together by Whitehouse Consultancy Chairman, Chris Whitehouse, who has a PR agency in Southwark, London called The Whitehouse Consultancy. Whitehouse is also the Conservative Councillor for Newport West Ward on the Isle of Wight. 

The event has been produced under another  company Mr Whitehead owns, called Westminster Forum Projects (WFP).  Companies House records confirm that WFP is a private limited company, also part owned by Peter Samuel Van Gelder. Given that there are only two people running this company, it seems odd that the receptionists had no knowledge of them.

Last year WFP made a loss of approximately of £157,111.00

We asked about whether interested members of the public could attend the event free of charge – it costs £230 plus VAT to attend. One receptionist told us free admission was at the Forum’s discretion.

The venue has yet to be confirmed, but we were told that the seminars were usually held in Westminster, though never inside the House of Commons.

Chairs for this event include Tory MP Suella Fernandes, who has been using the Fathers’ Rights movement to try to bolster aspects of the Conservative Manifesto. 

This is what the description on the WPF website says about their seminar:

“Following Government’s manifesto commitments to explore ways of improving the family justice system – and in the context of rising numbers of both public and private family law cases being brought – this seminar will consider key challenges and opportunities for the development of family justice policy in England and Wales.

Delegates will consider emerging issues in divorce law, looking at the effectiveness of initial trials to introduce on-line divorce and the de-linking of divorce and ‘money’ claims, as well as latest thinking on recent calls for the introduction of ‘no-fault’ divorce. Discussion is also expected on the protection of children and vulnerable witnesses in the Family Court, including the future for Government’s previous proposals to legislate to prevent perpetrators of domestic abuse from directly cross-examining their victims.

Further sessions will consider latest trends in care proceedings, looking in particular at challenges for managing the demands being placed on court services by increasing case-loads, maintaining standards following the introduction of the 26 week time limit, and ensuring that the system remains centred around the interests of the child. Following Government’s recent announcement of further funding for problem-solving court services, delegates will also consider the future of family drug and alcohol courts projects, and the implications for both court-users and local authorities.”

This conference is expected to bring together policymakers and the judicial representatives with a range of interested stakeholders, including lawyers, expert witnesses, local authorities and service-user groups, as well as campaign groups, commentators and reporting press.”

If you’d like to get in touch with the Forum, you can do so here.

There is also an agenda for the April seminar.

Very many thanks to Nick for alerting us to this event.

A debate in Westminster looking at family justice reform is to take place on Wednesday 15th November, but its underlying agenda is likely to disappoint serious reformers and raise eyebrows, too.

Whilst very little information has been offered about this debate – we still don’t know who organised or sponsored it, what the full list of topics will be and who will be attending – there are some clues on the event’s page over at the Parliament website. We have also received information from a Families Needs Fathers Cymru representative which sheds further light on the real agenda behind the debate.

The politician hosting the event is Suella Fernandes MP,  who is the Conservative MP for Fareham. A former member of the Education Committee, she now sits on the Education, Skills and the Economy Sub-Committee, which looks at ways in which education can boost the economy.

Suella was also on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill (Joint Committee). The Bill, which was ratified in 2016, came to be known as The Snooper’s Charter, for its invasive surveillance powers.

Suella’s voting record is interesting too.

She has consistently voted against laws to promote and protect people’s human rights, and any investigation into the Iraq war.

Relevant to the debate itself, she is an outspoken advocate for a presumption of shared parenting, and campaigns on Fathers’ Rights issues. Her work is supported by Families Need Fathers, though it’s not clear whether she feels the same way about the Fathers’ Rights organisation.

Suella appears to have become vocal about Fathers’ Rights around March of this year, writing for news outlets like The Times, and sponsoring the Family Justice Bill in that same month. The Bill’s aim was to make Child Arrangement Orders enforceable and to establish a presumption of shared parenting in law. It was ultimately set aside during the general election, but Suella never made any attempt to revive it after the Conservatives won.

She also used the Ten Minute Rule to introduce the Bill. As politicians and researchers will tell you, this makes the Bill nothing more than a soundbite, and is not considered a serious attempt at passing a law. We wonder whether Suella was upfront about this tactic, whilst appealing to angry and often desperate fathers willing to champion anyone showing an interest in their cause. Even if that someone might be an opportunist looking to bag a share of the votes.

It’s a sentiment not lost on some Families Need Fathers campaigners. One FNF post which featured another one of Suella’s soundbites, this time from her newspaper article on Fathers Rights, hosts a series of comments from FNF supporters. One comment, from Jo Woodage, reads:

Suella never acknowledged the post or offered a response.

Coming back to the debate itself, a briefing paper is going to be made available at some point, though no time frame is given for its publication. The page does explain that if you’d like to be alerted when the briefing paper is published, you can email the team to request a notification.

As for the topics that are going to be discussed, five potential themes are listed as tags right at the bottom of the page. They are: Civil partnerships, Cohabitation, Divorce, Family law, Marriage. There are Briefings Papers listed too, which focus on contact and residence, no fault divorce, prenuptial agreements and cohabitation.

FNF Cymru seem to have much more detailed information on what the debate will actually focus on, lending fuel to the fire that Families Need Fathers have had a large hand in this event. The FNF Cymru page’s update suggests that the following topics will be discussed:

· The need for a presumption of shared parenting
· The enforcement of child arrangement orders
· No-fault divorce
· The enforceability of prenuptial agreements
· Rights of cohabiting couples
· Opening up family courts

And at the bottom of the post, we are told: “We [FNF Cymru] have provided quite a lot of input to Suella on this. Please encourage your MP to attend.”

The debate coincides with a report released recently by the Nuffield Foundation which invites the government to consider no fault divorce, as well as a report entitled A Manifesto To Strengthen Families, which was produced by the Conservatives. The recommendations in the manifesto are typical of what you might expect from the party. They focus on ways to bolster conventional marriage through financial incentives as a way to lessen economic burdens on the state, which Tories believe are brought on by a rising trend in cohabitation.

If the debate is heavily populated by Conservative MPs, it’s bound to be nothing more than an effort at ensuring policy around couples focuses on boosting conventional marriage. This could potentially turn the clock back fifty years, in much the same way that Brexit and the government’s other disastrous policies have done. That the Conservatives, and Suella, may have used the Fathers Rights movement to prop up their debate is something FNF campaigners will have to decide for themselves.

As a Westminster Hall Debate the event will take place in the Grand Committee Room, one of the rooms Researching Reform uses for its Westminster Debates and so the debate should be open to the public.

It will be interesting to see who will be speaking at this event, and what the briefing paper has to offer, too.

We’ll keep you posted.

A very big thank you to DadsHouse for alerting us to this debate, and to Paul Apreda for kindly sharing information about Families Need Fathers’ support for this event.