The government announced that it had decided to give the media the right to report on family court proceedings, reversing consultative proposals made in 2007 to give judges and magistrates discretion on the issue.
Source: Family Justice in View, Cm 7502, Ministry of Justice, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Hansard | MOJ press release | Judiciary press release | Community Care report | BBC report | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Dec
Researchers examined the outcomes when divorced or separated parents could not agree on contact arrangements for their children and went to court. They looked at how much contact the parents received, and how this compared to what they applied for. They also addressed the perception that non-resident parents as a group were treated unfairly by the courts.
Source: Joan Hunt and Alison Macleod, Outcomes of Applications to Court for Contact Orders After Parental Separation or Divorce, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Summary | MOJ press release
Date: 2008-Sep
Researchers examined the importance of unanticipated house price shocks for marital dissolution, using individual household data from the British Household Panel Survey. Results suggested that positive and negative house price shocks had asymmetric effects on the probability of partnership dissolution. Negative house price shocks significantly increased the risk of partnership dissolution, while positive shocks did not have a significant effect in general. The destabilizing effect of negative house price shocks was particularly pronounced for couples with dependent children, low family income, and high mortgage debt.
Source: Helmut Rainer and Ian Smith, Staying Together for the Sake of the Home? House price shocks and partnership dissolution in the UK, Working Paper 2008-31, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper | Abstract
Date: 2008-Sep
The provisional divorce rate in England and Wales fell in 2007 for a third consecutive year, to 11.9 divorces per 1,000 married men and women compared with the 2006 figure of 12.2.
Source: Press release 29 August 2008, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: ONS press release | Relate press release | Telegraph report | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Aug
An article examined the age difference of marrying and divorcing couples, calculated by subtracting the wife's age from the husband's. Between 1963 and 2005, the distribution of age differences for all marriages was very similar in each year to the distribution of age differences for the subset of couples who married in that year but had since divorced. Although there was some evidence of small variations in the proportion of marriages that ended in divorce by age difference, there did not seem to be evidence of a strong association.
Source: Ben Wilson and Steve Smallwood, 'Age differences at marriage and divorce', Population Trends 132, Summer 2008, Office for National Statistics, Palgrave Macmillan (01256 329242)
Links: Article | ONS press release | FT report
Date: 2008-Jun
A paper examined whether unemployment increased the risk of partnership dissolution. It was found that any form of unemployment tended to lead to partnership dissolution. The effect was similar when unemployment hit either a man or a woman.
Source: Morten Blekesaune, Unemployment and Partnership Dissolution, Working Paper 2008-21, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper
Date: 2008-Jun
An article examined ways in which Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service practitioners went beyond the purely assessment role expected of them in the course of the enquiries they undertook.
Source: Greg Mantle, Isabel Williams, Jane Leslie, Sarah Parsons and Ray Shaffer, 'Beyond assessment: social work intervention in family court enquiries', British Journal of Social Work, Volume 38 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Apr
A study found that mothers who separated from their partners experienced a significant drop in their incomes: but the decline was markedly lower than it had been a decade previously – apparently reflecting rising rates of employment for women with children over the course of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Source: Stephen Jenkins, Marital Splits and Income Changes Over the Longer Term, Working Paper 2008-07, Institute for Social and Economic Research/University of Essex (01206 873087)
Links: Working paper | ISER press release | CPAG press release | Guardian report
Date: 2008-Mar
An article examined the distinction (in both England and Sweden) made between a child's right to representation under public law cases and private law cases regarding legal custody/parental responsibility, residence, or contact – and how far this distinction accorded with the best interests of the child.
Source: Eva Ryrstedt and Titti Mattsson, 'Children's rights to representation: a comparison between Sweden and England', International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, Volume 22 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
An article examined the role of cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity in child care proceedings. There was room for considerable improvement in the degree of attention given to issues of diversity in evidence, and in the experiences of parents attending court.
Source: Julia Brophy, 'Child maltreatment in diverse households: challenges to law, theory, and practice', Journal of Law and Society, Volume 35 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2008-Mar
An article said that, assuming that divorce rates and death rates remained unchanged from 2005, around 45 per cent of marriages would end before their 60th anniversary because of divorce, and 45 per cent would end due to death.
Source: Ben Wilson and Steve Smallwood, 'The proportion of marriages ending in divorce', Population Trends 131, Spring 2008, Office for National Statistics, Palgrave Macmillan (01256 329242)
Links: Article | ONS press release | Telegraph report
Date: 2008-Mar
A study provided baseline data on care proceedings brought under the Children Act 1989, as a basis against which reforms to the care proceedings system could be evaluated. It profiled the characteristics of the children and families involved in care proceedings, the concerns and actions of local authorities, and plans for the child's care.
Source: Judith Masson, Julia Pearce and Kay Bader with others, Care Profiling Study, Research Report 4/08, Ministry of Justice (020 7210 8500)
Links: Report | Community Care report
Date: 2008-Mar
The government responded to a report by the Law Commission on the financial consequences of relationship breakdown for cohabiting couples. It said that it would await the outcome of research on the Scottish experience of similar law reform before taking any action on the report's recommendations.
Source: House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 6 March 2008, column 122WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Hansard
Date: 2008-Mar