PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Grandparents: Statutory Right to Access - 16 May 2023 (Commons/Commons Chamber)
Debate Detail
Contributions from Dame Caroline Dinenage, are highlighted with a yellow border.
Dame Caroline Dinenage
Gosport
12:01:57
Mike Freer
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice
We recognise that grandparents often play an important role in children’s lives and can provide stability in families following divorce or bereavement. However, when making any decision about a child’s upbringing the court’s paramount consideration must be the welfare of the child based on the individual facts of the case, and given the importance of considering each case on its individual merits neither adults nor children have a statutory right of access.
12:02:36
Dame Caroline Dinenage
I thank the Minister for his answer but we know that the bond with a grandparent can be one of the most precious relationships in a child’s life, yet so often in the adult wars of family breakdown children are a weapon and actions by grandparents through the family court are often incredibly expensive and frequently fruitless. What more can the Department do to give grandchildren that right to see their grandparents, and is it not about time we followed the example of Scotland, which has an older persons Minister, and Northern Ireland and Wales, which have older persons commissioners, to take up such issues?
Mike Freer
My hon. Friend might want to take up the question of an older persons commissioner with the Prime Minister because I suspect that is well above my pay grade. On access for grandparents, I will double-check this but am pretty sure that we recently extended the ability to get legal aid to special guardianship orders, which may well be accessible for grandparents to secure rights of access.
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