Day

Separating couples will be helped by a new £2m package of support aimed at avoiding expensive and confrontational courtroom battles, family justice minister Simon Hughes has announced.

After the major changes to the Family Court in April this year and the recent announcement in July of a free mediation session for separating couples, the Government is announcing further initiatives to help people in the family and civil justice system. A new package of support has been developed aimed at keeping disputes away from court and providing better support for those who do end up in court.

The new support will include:

–  Improving online information so that it is accurate, engaging and easy to find.

–  A new strategy agreed between the MoJ and the legal and advice sectors which will increase legal and practical support for litigants in person in the civil and family courts.

–  A new ‘Supporting separating parents in dispute helpline’ pilot run by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) to test a more joined-up and tailored out-of-court service.

Justice Minister Simon Hughes said:

“I am committed to making sure that when people separate that they do it in the best possible way. Too many people end up fighting expensive and confrontational court battles and I am determined that more people resolve their problems outside of the courts.

“However when people do end up in court it is imperative that they have the right advice and information. One of my priorities when I became a Minister was to improve the availability of legal advice, and these new measures will make sure that separating couples and parents are able to access the right advice, information and support at the right time.”

The Government will improve online information for separating couples including on the websites Sorting Out Separation and Gov.uk to make sure these include all key information and guidance.

A court support service for Litigants in Person will be introduced in civil and family cases. The service will begin in selected court centres with the aim of rolling out across England and Wales. The service will help those who need to go to court to access practical support and information and provide them with a route to free or affordable legal advice.

The support service has been agreed between key organisations working in partnership with the Ministry of Justice and will begin to expand immediately. The Personal Support Unit (PSU), the RCJ Advice Bureau, LawWorks and Law for Life: the Foundation for Public Legal Education will work together to provide support through the civil and family courts for those who need it.

The funding will see:

–  More Personal Support Units opened in more courts across England and Wales to provide practical information and support including emotional support.

–  Additional LawWorks Clinics established to increase the supply of initial legal advice, work with the local legal professions and advice agencies, and with law schools where possible.

–  Advice made available by phone and email to local and regional centres from RCJ Advice, together with information and materials produced through working with Law for Life and via Law for Life’s online Advicenow project.

–  One named person in each court centre to manage the new service as well as an appointed judge in each court centre with particular responsibility for Litigants in Person.

The Attorney General’s Pro Bono Envoy, Michael Napier CBE, QC (Hon) said:

“This strategy will make an increasing difference over time for LIPs. It builds on existing models and experience in England and Wales and brings resources together in the way that enables them to be more effective for LIPs.

“The strategy puts the LIP at the heart of things and exemplifies the coordination and collaboration that the Attorney General’s Pro Bono Coordinating Committees have always sought to facilitate. The result is to unlock more assistance to the public. I congratulate all who have been involved in bringing the strategy about. We must now be patient for it to build.”

A free phone ‘supporting separating parents in dispute helpline’ pilot will start in November and run for 6 months, aimed at separating parents who have been unable to resolve disputes and want to avoid court battles over their children or who need help in doing so. The helpline, run by Cafcass, will put callers through to an experienced professional who will act as their single point of contact throughout the dispute. They will talk through the difficulties being faced, assess what support the parent needs and will offer impartial information and guidance.  This will include putting callers in touch with the relevant local professionals and support services, including mediation. Cafcass will follow-up with the parent to see how efforts to resolve the dispute are progressing and, if necessary, will  provide further assistance.

Anthony Douglas CBE, Cafcass’ Chief Executive:

“All of us in the family justice system are negotiators now. In this pilot, we’ll be using our in-court skills before court in the community, providing an out of court service to separated parents who are unable to resolve their disputes around the kitchen table, because of the powerful emotions involved – a sense of betrayal, hatred or being broken-hearted. We will be trying to re-focus parents on the needs of their children who are often lost in the storm, particularly where their parents are drifting into dispute addiction.

“The pilot is an example of the family justice system adapting to litigants in person rather than them having to navigate a complex system unsupported. We will also be coordinating and building up community services in the pilot areas, aiming to have in place affordable community support services which remain viable even when budgets continue to be under extreme pressure.”

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers alleged to have mishandled a rape complaint have been told that they are no longer under criminal investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).

In March this year two serving detectives – a Detective Inspector and a Detective Constable; a retired Detective Inspector; and a retired Detective Constable now serving as a civilian with the force – were served with criminal notices alleging they failed to carry out the investigation to the correct standards and failed to provide adequate support to the victim.

The IPCC has not identified sufficient evidence to establish that any of the four officers committed a criminal offence, and therefore a formal referral to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will not be made.

The IPCC will now determine if the four officers and a police constable who was not served with a criminal notice have a case to answer for misconduct.

The investigation, announced in January 2014, began after the IPCC learned that a complainant reported being raped at knife-point in 2010 but alleged that the incident was not investigated properly by the force and that a man identified as being responsible was never arrested or interviewed.

Mr. Linus Awute

The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, has decried the non-implementation of the series of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the Ministry entered with other countries on health matters.

The Permanent Secretary made this known in Abuja today at the inauguration of the Bilateral Affairs Committee (BAG).

In a statement signed by the Assistant Chief information Officer Markus Mangai, the Permanent Secretary said that the Ministry has had series of engagements with other countries that have manifested in the form of MOUs adding that these MOUs are either in the process of development or they have been concluded and there are no follow up activities or they have even been totally forgotten.

He said that available information revealed that many of the Bilateral Agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) on Health matters that Nigeria has entered with other countries were not maximally utilized.

He emphasised that in order to reverse this trend, there is need for effective involvement of all relevant stakeholders and implementers of the MOUs, stressing that the Bilateral Affairs Committee was born out of the need to effectively and efficiently coordinate the implementation of all MOUs between Nigeria and other countries.

He reminded members of the Committee that it is their duty to ensure that all MOUs signed by their departments, agencies or programmes, independent of Federal Ministry of Health or signed through the Ministry, must be forwarded to the Committee for proper coordination and articulation.

He also said that the Ministry is supposed to produce the result of such collaborations and report to National Planning Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The mandates of the Committee include among others to boost bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and other countries of interest and also to identify possible countries that Nigeria could enter into profitable agreement with on Health matters.

The Committee has 19 members with Mrs.Ansa Ogu, Director, Health Planning Research and Statistics as the Chairperson.

The Governor of Kano State and a presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said he is not under any pressure to step down for Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the countdown to the 2015 presidential election.

Kwankwaso added that the APC was not a small party that the decision of who becomes its presidential candidate in next year’s presidential election would be taken in the bedroom of a party leader.

“I’m not under any pressure to step down for anybody. In fact, nobody asked me to step down for anybody and doing that will not be even good for the party.

“You see many people are used to either small parties or let me say medium-sized parties where people sit down and choose somebody in a room. Now we are talking about APC mega party which is not ANPP, CPC, APGA or ACN.

“It’s a collection of all and we always tell people to look at the example of the PDP. From 1999 to 2011, (for) each election they had to go for primary elections not arranged election but real elections,” he said.

The governor, who wrote on his Facebook page, on Wednesday, took a swipe at the Peoples Democratic Party, saying that the party had resorted to conducting its presidential primary in the Presidential Villa. This, he added, was an indication of PDP will lose the 2015 presidential election to APC.

Kwankwaso said, “Even when we have sitting presidents in 2003 and 2011, there were elections, serious elections. And that’s why the PDP has been winning all along and all others who were making arranged elections were losing elections.

“As fate would have it, now PDP has decided to do their own primary in the Villa and the APC is going to the field. That shows us clearly that APC will win and the PDP will lose election in 2015.”

According to the APC chieftain, since the party has a strong base, it should allow all its presidential aspirants to go round the country to campaign. This he said would bring in more supporters for the party.

“And that’s exactly what we are doing. In the last few weeks many people joined APC because of me and they will continue to join especially if I have a ticket,” the governor said about his campaign efforts.

He added, “Most of the guys in the PDP, the good ones, are my friends and certainly once I declare and get a ticket, they will cross over to APC or stay there and work for me. One of the advantages that I have is that it is not only APC that will vote, the PDP will also vote for me in the general elections.

If I win the primary election, I will be very happy and other contestants will work together, we are very close, all the three or four of us. And of course if anyone wins elections we will support him.”

He, however, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to be an impartial umpire in the forthcoming presidential election.

“And that’s why we are saying to INEC and other people that they must not go and take dictations from the Villa and come out and write figures because that will not be acceptable.

“It was the issue of venue that made me to change the date of my formal declaration because they did not give us approval to use the Eagle Square. It is now going to be on the 28th of this month. We are still looking for venue but if they don’t give us we will declare on the streets of Abuja because most of the venues are owned by them,” Kwankwaso stated.