As of Monday 27 January 2025, reporters now have permission to attend and report on nearly all proceedings in the English and Welsh family courts. This is the result of new reporting provisions for children cases and the extension of a pilot scheme for financial remedy proceedings.
The new provisions for children cases follow what was deemed as a successful pilot scheme starting in 2023 and subsequently rolled out to half of the family courts in England and Wales in January 2024, which aimed to enhance transparency in the family courts by permitting greater reporting on cases. For more information on the pilot scheme, see our article on Transparency in the Family Courts.
As with the pilot scheme, the new provisions will be staggered from:
- 27 January 2025 – to cover public law children cases in all courts. Such cases usually involve local authorities such as proceedings for a child to be removed from their family and taken into care.
- 1 May 2025 – to cover private law children cases in all courts. For example, where the courts adjudicate on issues relating to children when the parents cannot agree, e.g. with which parent a child should live or which school a child should attend.
- 29 September 2029 – to cover cases before magistrates.
In order to report on proceedings, reporters will need to apply for a Transparency Order, which is likely to be granted unless there are legitimate reasons not to. However, strict anonymity on the proceedings will be imposed to protect the identity of the children and their families. Reporters who are able to attend are accredited journalists or legal bloggers (lawyers who are attending for journalistic, research or educational purposes). Transparency Orders can allow reporters access to key documents, to report on what they see and hear and enable the parties involved to discuss proceedings with reporters without this being a contempt of court – although this does not permit the parties themselves to publish information from the proceedings.
The 2023 pilot did not include financial remedy proceedings, however as of January 2024, a similar pilot scheme for financial cases was rolled out in Birmingham, Leeds and the Central Family Court, and extended to the Royal Courts of Justice in November 2024. As of Wednesday 29 January 2025, the pilot scheme applies to financial remedy proceedings taking place in all courts. This pilot scheme has been extended to 29 January 2026. The pilot scheme mirrors the new reporting provisions for children cases as set out above and allows reporters to report on financial remedies on divorce (except Financial Dispute Resolution hearings), for children (Schedule 1, Children Act 1989) and after an overseas divorce (Part III, Matrimonial and Family Proceedings Act 1984).
This article was written by Tamara Turner-Distin.