Changes to Family Procedure Rules laid before Parliament

[Alison J Stevens]

As you may be aware, the Family Justice Review made a number of recommendations to improve the use of experts in family proceedings.

The intention is to make changes to ensure expert evidence is used only where it is necessary, in the opinion of the court, to assist the court in resolve the proceedings. Changes are also intended to address the culture identified by the Review of over-use of expert reports in care proceedings, even when they add little value.

As part of this process of change, the Family Procedure Rule Committee (FPRC) has developed a number of amendments to Part 25 of the Family Procedure Rules (FPR), which deal with experts and assessors. The Family Procedure Rules govern the procedures used in family courts in England and Wales.

Today the amendments to these rules were laid before Parliament and they will be available shortly on the legislation website . The rules insert a new Part 25 (Experts and Assessors) into the Family Procedure Rules 2010.

The changes to the existing Part 25 include the following:

• a change to the test for permission to put expert evidence before the court from 'reasonably required' to 'necessary'. In proceedings relating to children, the new test also applies to permission to instruct an expert and for a child to be examined or assessed to obtain expert evidence for use in the proceedings;
• the inclusion of specific factors which the court should consider when deciding whether to give permission for expert evidence, including the impact on the timetable and conduct of the proceeding and the cost. Additional factors are included for proceedings relating to children. These include what other expert evidence is available (including any obtained before the start of proceedings) and whether the evidence could be obtained from another source such as one of the parties;
• in proceedings relating to children, an application for permission to instruct an expert should state the questions which the expert is required to answer which the court needs to approve.

The rules will come into force on 31 January 2013 and will apply to existing proceedings as well as proceedings started after that date. New Practice Directions (which provide supplementary guidance to support the FPR) will also take effect on 31 January 2013.

Once in force, the rules and Practice Directions will be available on the Family Procedure Rules section of the Ministry of Justice website.

This is a first step in a comprehensive programme to tackle the current delays in care proceedings which are unacceptable and not in children's interests.

The Government's proposed family justice legislation, which includes provisions on expert evidence, will, if passed, eventually supersede parts of the amended FPR. This Bill is currently undergoing pre-legislative scrutiny. We will keep you updated with progress.