The presumption of parental involvement is enshrined in the Children Act 1989. Section 1(2A) of the Act provides as follows:
“A court, in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (4)(a) or (7), is as respects each parent within subsection (6)(a) to presume, unless the contrary is shown, that involvement of that parent in the life of the child concerned will further the child’s welfare” (emphasis added).
The circumstances referred to in subsections (4(a)) and (7) are those whereby the Court is considering whether to make, vary or discharge a Section 8 Order or an Order granting or removing parental responsibility. Parental involvement refers to both direct or indirect contact, and direct contact may be subject to restrictions such as operating only on a supervised or supported basis.
The Government has, today, announced that this presumption will be repealed. The Ministry of Justice’s Press Release has referred to new evidence which suggests that the presumption that it is in the best interests of a child to have involvement from both of their parents in their life, can perpetuate abuse.
The change follows significant campaigning from organisations, such as Women’s Aid, which has highlighted the risks of a presumption in favour of a child’s contact with both parents, particularly in circumstances whereby allegations of domestic abuse have been made. The problem of the interplay between the statutory presumption and allegations of domestic abuse has recently been a focal point within the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s October 2025 report.
The campaign against the statutory presumption forms part of the wider campaign against the ‘pro-contact culture’ that is said to be deeply rooted within the family courts. Concerns in relation to the pro-contact culture had been explored and evidenced within the June 2020 report titled Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases, which led to a recommendation that the presumption of parental involvement be urgently reviewed.
We are now five years on from the recommendations made by the Harm Panel in 2020. The Government has not yet announced a timescale within which the statutory provision will be repealed, simply indicating that this issue will be legislated “when Parliamentary time allows”.
The Ministry of Justice’s Final Report in relation to the presumption can be found here.
Link to the Ministry of Justice Press Release here.
This article was prepared by Chelsea Bartlett, a specialist family law practitioner, with a focus on public and private law children disputes. Find out more here.