In what has been described as a “watershed moment for family justice” by the President of the Family Division, from 27 January 2025, journalists and legal bloggers can report on what they see and hear whilst attending any family court in England and Wales, if a transparency order is granted.
These new provisions, which extend to all family courts in England and Wales, follow a two-year transparency pilot scheme undertaken in a limited number of family courts.
The Family Court Reporting Pilot, which began in January 2023, initially ran in three courts and was subsequently extended in January 2024 to 16 more. It initially operated in public and private law cases before judges, and was extended in November 2024 to include public and private law cases before magistrates in the pilot areas. These same stepped arrangements will be followed in the remaining family courts to which the open reporting provisions have now been extended, starting with public law cases, then private law cases and finally those cases before magistrates.
The introduction of the reporting pilot in 2023 followed recommendations made by Sir Andrew MacFarlane, President of the Family Division, as a result of the conclusions he reached at the end a Transparency Review, and in which he acknowledged the fundamental importance of ‘open justice’ and the public scrutiny of the workings of the justice system. He called for greater openness in family proceedings but not at the expense of the interests of children who may be the subject of the proceedings. The purpose of the pilot was to ensure that the ability to report could be carried out safely and with minimum disruption to the parties involved in the cases and to the court.
In those courts in which it was operating, the pilot introduced a presumption that accredited media and legal bloggers could report on what they saw and heard during family court cases, subject to strict rules of anonymity. Prior to the introduction of the pilot, journalists had been able to attend Family Court hearings but they had no right to report on them.
The aim of the open reporting provisions is to improve public understanding and confidence in the Family Court, in proceedings which are not usually readily accessible to the public, whilst still protecting the anonymity of the children involved and their families where needed.
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