Review of Scottish family law launched

The Scottish Government has launched a public consultation on the Review of Part 1 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and related matters.

FNF Scotland has been pressing for such a review to address the spectrum of issues that arise at our monthly meetings or are raised by individuals who get in contact. We will make our overall submission to the review settng out the direction we would like the reform of family law to take. 

In the coming weeks we will publish on this website our position on specific issues such as alternatives to the present adversarial basis of child contact/residence actions, alternatives to court, enforcement of orders and reliable approaches to securing the views of children involved.

The civil servants who are conducting the consultation will be coming to several FNF group meetings in the next few weeks to get insight into the personal, financial and relationship costs of the current approach to maintaining a meaningful parenting relationship for both parents after separation. We will also have a separate evening meeting in Glasgow on June 27th to discuss the consultation – use this link to book tickets.

FNF Scotland National Manager, Ian Maxwell, says, “We have been pressing the case for a comprehensive review for several years. The moment has come and we look forward to an overhaul of Scottish family law that will bring the legislation in line with life as it is lived in modern Scotland.”

“We believe a rebuttable presumption of shared parenting after separation will help the individuals involved draw up arrangements that genuinely put the interests of their children first. There are too many incentives in the ‘winner takes all’ approach of the current system that promote character attacks on each parent by the other which damage relationships long after their court case is over and the sheriff has gone home. “