Family Court reporting pilot extended to 16 further courts

The Transparency Implementation Pilots are to be extended to 16 further courts across the country from the end of January.

The aim of the pilots is to introduce a presumption that accredited media and legal bloggers may report on what they see and hear during family court cases, subject to “strict rules of anonymity”.

This is done through judges in the pilot courts making a ‘Transparency Order’, which sets out the rules of what can and cannot be reported.

The reporting pilots were launched in family courts in Cardiff, Leeds and Carlisle on 30 January 2023, and for private law cases in May.

The ability to report is being piloted to ensure it can be done “safely and with minimum disruption to those involved in the cases, and the courts”, said the Judiciary.

The new courts taking part from Monday 29 January are Liverpool, Manchester, West Yorkshire, Kingston-upon-Hull, Nottingham, Stoke, Derby, Birmingham, Central Family Court (London), East London, West London, Dorset, Truro Luton, Guildford and Milton Keynes.

This means that 19 of the 43 centres in England and Wales will be part of the Pilot.

The Transparency Implementation Pilot is the pilot scheme for one of the main recommendations from the President of the Family Division’s Transparency Review, which was published in October 2021.

In the report, the President, Sir Andrew McFarlane, noted that many of the decisions made in family cases involved judges and magistrates “exercising a degree of discretion”, and therefore it was legitimate for the public to know of these judgments, to “provide a basis for trust in the soundness of the court’s approach and its decisions, or to establish a ground for concern in that regard”.

Announcing the extension, Sir Andrew said: “Extending the reporting pilot to family courts across the country is a huge step in the judiciary’s ongoing work to increase transparency and improve public confidence and understanding of the family justice system. After a pioneering year of reporting from Leeds, Cardiff and Carlisle journalists and legal bloggers will be allowed to report from a further 16 courts.

“We hope than in extending the pilot further we can continue to understand the impact that family court reporting has. I would like to urge the media to read the guidance and come to the family courts to see the vital and challenging work that is done there, and to report on the cases and issues that are so important.”