The Law Society expressed its disappointment today at the Government's refusal to stop charging fees to local authority for care proceedings, despite the Family Justice Review's recommendation to do so.
Law Society Chief Executive Desmond Hudson said:
'It makes no sense charging local authorities a fee for care proceeding applications. There is no evidence that proceedings are initiated prematurely or unnecessarily, or that fees act as an incentive to use services more efficiently. If the cost of bringing care proceedings means that local authorities defer proceedings for budgetary reasons, this can only harm vulnerable children.
'These charges either affect local authority behaviour, in which case they risk damage to children, or they do not, in which case they are pointless. Both the Plowden report and the Norgrove Review came to that conclusion. Either way we ask the Government to urgently re-consider.'
Ends
Note to Editors:
The Plowden Report 'Review of Court Fees in Care proceedings' was published in September 2009 and concluded that, 'Whatever the precise level at which the full cost fee is set and irrespective of the arguments in favour of cost recovery in other areas of justice, it is hard to see that there are any compensating advantages in the present arrangements in either public expenditure terms or, more importantly, the difficult task of safeguarding vulnerable children. In the light of this, I recommend that the fees should be abolished, with appropriate adjustments made to MoJ and local authority budgets.'
The report can be found at :http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/court-fees-child-care-proceedings.pdf
The Family Justice Review was published in November 2011, and recommended that: 'Charges to local authorities for public law applications and to local authorities and Cafcass for police checks in public and private law cases should be removed'.
The Review can be found at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/policy/moj/family-justice-review-final-report.pdf
The Law Society is the independent professional body, established for solicitors in 1825, that works globally to support and represent its members, promoting the highest professional standards and the rule of law.
Contact: Catherine Reed, The Law Society
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