Written question asked by Priti Patel (Conservative) on Tuesday, 26 April 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 28 April 2011. It was answered by Tim Loughton (Conservative) on Wednesday, 4 May 2011 on behalf of the Department for Education.

CAFCASS

Question: (2) how many (a) fathers and (b) mothers have (i) successfully and (ii) unsuccessfully challenged a final decision by Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service to prevent access to a child in each of the last five years.

Answer: Decisions regarding contact with children are made by the family courts rather than by Cafcass. The court will make a decision within the framework on the Children Act 1989 which requires the court to consider the best interests of the child in each particular case. The court may seek advice from Cafcass or other agencies on an issue but is not bound to follow any recommendations in the report.Neither the Department for Education nor Cafcass collects information on whether the courts follow the recommendations in Cafcass reports, or on the nature of those recommendations.

Secondary information