New legislation aimed at giving the views of children more weight in the legal system has been approved by the Scottish Parliament.
The Children (Scotland) Bill was passed unanimously in Holyrood and will give children under the age of 12 the right to have meaningful legal input in family disputes.
It is designed to improve the experience of children in court proceedings, particularly in contact and residence cases and brings Scottish law more in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
Victims of domestic abuse, and their children, will also get greater protections under the changes, while regulation of contact centres and children's reporters is also increased by the legislation.
Speaking in the chamber, community safety minister Ash Denham said the new law makes "radical changes to make the whole process much more child friendly".
Ms Denham said: "One of my key aims of the Bill was to ensure that the voice of the child is heard and, ultimately, the best interests of the child are of paramount consideration in any contact or residence case.
"The Bill as introduced - and as amended at stage two and today at stage three - furthers the rights of children to participate in proceedings.
"The presumption that our child age 12 or over is mature enough to give their views, has been replaced with a presumption that all children are capable of giving their views, subject to extremely limited exceptions.
"In addition, under the Bill the courts will be required to provide children with an explanation of their decisions."
She added: "The Bill also makes important steps forward for looked after children and their brothers and sisters, and this Bill requires local authorities to promote contact between a child and their brothers and sisters just as they must promote contact with parents, if this is possible."
Ms Denham said the implementation of the changes will take place "as quickly as possible", although some aspects - such as changes to children's reporters - will take longer as they "require significant consultation".
"Our work on improving the family courts is far from complete, there is much left to do and we will do that as quickly as we can in the current circumstances," she said.
The Scottish Conservatives' justice spokesman Liam Kerr backed the Bill, saying it was the product of collaboration and working across the parties.
But by doing this he said the Parliament had come up with a "finished product we can all be proud of".
Labour's James Kelly said his party too supported the legislation, saying it introduced "key reforms".
He described it as being "strong legislation", adding that "hopefully it will serve the interests of children well".
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel