The Society of Editors has welcomed the planned expansion of a Family Courts pilot which will allow wider media reporting of the work of the Family Courts.
On Monday 29 January 2024, the Transparency Implementation Group Reporting Pilot (TIG), which for the first time made it the default position that the media could report on family cases, will be extended to 16 courts across the country. The pilot started at the family courts in Leeds, Cardiff and Carlisle at the end of January 2023 and will now expand to courts in Liverpool, Manchester, West Yorkshire, Kingston-upon-Hull, Nottingham, Stoke, Derby, Birmingham, the Central Family Court, East London, West London, Dorset, Truro, Luton, Guildford and Milton Keynes.
Responding to the expansion, Dawn Alford, Executive Director of the Society of Editors said: “The Society has long supported greater transparency in the Family Courts so the expansion of the pilot is a welcome step to achieving both greater public confidence and understanding of how such often life-changing decisions are made.”