---

Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

So eager was I to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, that only when she said that she could not support Amendment No. 27 did I realise that I had not spoken to it. On the question of mediation being free, there is a precedent. During the passage of the Family Law Act 1996, the then Lord Chancellor, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, believed that mediation had enormous potential. Part 2 of the Bill therefore provides for the Legal Aid Act 1988 to be amended to allow parties eligible to apply for state funding to do so. That is important—but we agree that it would be awful if people were prevented from attending a meeting that might make a material difference to the whole process of splitting up, and to their children. We believe that it would also save a lot of money.