Vernon Coaker – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Vernon Coaker on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the enforcement of orders issued by the Family Court; and if he will make a statement.

Caroline Dinenage

If an order made in the family court is breached, a party named in that order may apply to the court to consider appropriate enforcement action.

The family courts have the power to treat breach of an order as a contempt of court, punishable by imprisonment or a fine or both. Where a child arrangements order is breached the court can only make an enforcement order if it is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a party has breached the relevant order and has no good reason for doing so.