Quite right, there would be very poor lawyers indeed, and we would not want that, would we?

If courts always made reasonable judgments, we would not need the present Bill and there would not be an awful lot of disaffected non-resident parents for whom the system is clearly not working. That is why enforcement measures are needed. Although we think that we can address the system rather better, we agree that, if we cannot fix the system, enforcement measures must work better.

I have just set out the figures and the scale of the problem. What also goes to the heart of the matter, which many people find devastating, is that one does not need to have done anything wrong or to be a bad parent to be denied reasonable contact. It is enough to be a non-resident parent who happens to have fallen foul of a ruling at the instigation of a parent with custody who is seeking to carve the non-resident parent out of the family arrangement. Many people are perplexed, to put it mildly, about contact arrangements that are ended almost at the drop of a hat—however good a parent the non-resident parent is desperately trying to be, and however good their record of keeping meaningful, quality contact with their children.

All the research says that it is not just the amount of contact that is important, but the quality of it, and whether the non-resident is engaging in a proper, loving, meaningful relationship with the child during the limited contact time that has been granted. The best relationship is one in which the two parents play an active role, preferably both in a residential setting, and otherwise where one has custody and one does not. These matters are rarely, if ever, the fault of the child of a family breakdown, and the child must not be penalised if things have happened that are out of his control.

The principle behind the new clauses has been endorsed by the Government. In the first deliberations on the Bill in another place, Lord Adonis said

”We fully support the position established in case law that children normally benefit from a meaningful relationship with both parents following separation, so long as it is safe”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 29 June 2005; Vol. 673, c. 251.]

Likewise, the Green Paper said:

”After separation, both parents should have responsibility for, and a meaningful relationship with, their children, so long as it is safe. This is the view of most people in our society.”

I wholeheartedly endorse that.

As I mentioned on Second Reading, all the studies show how a child can benefit from greater integration with a non-resident father—in the vast majority of cases it is the father who is the non-resident parent. Fathers’ roles have changed quite dramatically over the past 20 years or so. Men spend eight times more time with their children than 30 years ago and fathers now carry out one third of parental care in families where women work.

Research has highlighted that children whose fathers had been actively involved in their lives achieved more academically, had more satisfying relationships in their own adult lives, and were less likely to get into trouble with the police. If fathers are involved, children are less likely to have a criminal record by the age of 21. Pre-school children who spend more time playing with their dads are often more sociable when they enter nursery school. Fathers who are involved with their children early and comprehensively usually stay involved, which promotes the health of the infant. Children’s health and behaviour is connected to the involvement of the father in the family. Fathers’ involvement promotes involvement by mothers and involved fathers are likely to support their children financially. Children who are close to their fathers are more likely to have resilience. On all those measures and on any research, it must be in the interests of the children that we do everything we can to maintain meaningful, reasonable contact with both parents. That is what we are trying to put in the Bill.

As I said on Second Reading, our suggestion is neither rocket science nor unique to this country. It is certainly the way that the law operates in some states in the US and in Australia. It is also the way that the new Canadian Government are seeking to make their law work. Most recently, the laws passed in Italy make the joint custody of children the norm when families split up. This is the way that the tide is going. Moreover it is nothing terribly new for this country.

The previous Conservative Government were considering amending the law along those lines in the Family Law Act 1996. Section 11(4) of that Act states:

“(c) the general principle that, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the welfare of the child will be best served by—

(i) his having regular contact with those who have parental responsibility for him and with other members of his family; and

(ii) the maintenance of as good a continuing relationship with his parents as is possible”.

That is what we are saying here; it is nothing new. The Government have had 10 years to mull this over but have come up with something that singularly fails to address the problem of achieving reasonable contact, which needs to be set out in the Bill.