Brussels II Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003

Department for Education did not have the information requested.

Kristian Healey-Ryder

Dear Department for Education,

With the Government deciding to take Britain out of the EU, what consideration has been given to Brussels II Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003?

What do you propose will replace this regulation, and where will I find a document detailing your proposals along with a timescale for implementation?

Clearly this has significant implications for family law and social work, so I trust that your department has given the matter serious consideration.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Kristian Healey-Ryder

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. We can confirm that
we have received the Freedom of Information request you submitted.

We will respond to you within 20 working days.

 

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Thank you for your recent enquiry. A reply will be sent to you as soon as
possible. For information; the departmental standard for correspondence
received is that responses should be sent within 20 working days as you
are requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your
correspondence has been allocated reference number 2017-0046861.

 

Thank you

 

Department for Education

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

Tel: 0370 000 2288

 

Kristian Healey-Ryder

Dear Department for Education,

I appreciate that your department is busy but, by law, the Department for Education should normally have responded promptly and by 20 October 2017 at the latest.

Yours faithfully,

Kristian Healey-Ryder

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. We can confirm that
we have received the Freedom of Information request you submitted.

We will respond to you within 20 working days.

 

ACCOUNT, Unmonitored, Department for Education

Dear Ms Healey Ryder

 

Thank you for your request for information, dated 23 September 2017,
requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

In your email, you asked the following questions:

 

·       with the Government deciding to take Britain out of the EU, what
consideration has been given to Brussels II Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003?

 

·       what do you propose will replace this regulation, and where will I
find a document detailing your proposals along with a timescale for
implementation?

 

I can inform you that the Department does not consider this request to
fall under the remit of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because your
request is not seeking access to information that is, or is likely to be,
recorded.  However, we take all correspondence we receive from members of
the public and others very seriously, and we have dealt with your email in
keeping with our approach to general correspondence we receive. 

 

In that context, although this Department obviously has an interest in
these important matters as they relate to child protection and parental
responsibility, it is the Ministry of Justice which is leading for the
United Kingdom government on matters pertaining to your questions.  On
that basis, we have transferred your correspondence to the Ministry of
Justice and they will reply to you in full in due course.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Child Protection, Safeguarding and Family Law Division Children’s Services
Policy Family

SCME Directorate,

Department for Education

Level 8

Sanctuary Buildings

20 Great Smith Street

London

SW1P 3BT

 

Central Correspondence Team,

 

Re: Brussels IIa Regulation (EC) No 2201/2003

 

Dear Kristian Healey-Ryder,

 

Thank you for your email to the Department for Education dated 23
September 2017 regarding the Brussels II Regulation (EC) No. 2201/2003.
Your email has been referred to the Ministry of Justice for response.

 

The Brussels IIa Regulation, which superseded the earlier Brussels II
Regulation, is an important component of the civil judicial cooperation
framework that exists between EU Member States. 

 

As you are aware, on 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom, voted to leave the
European Union. The UK Government invoked the official EU withdrawal
process on 29 March 2017. The UK will leave the EU on 29 March 2019.

 

The UK government set out its position on cross-border civil judicial
cooperation in the future partnership with the EU in the paper published
in August “[1]Providing a cross-border civil judicial cooperation
framework – A future partnership paper”. That paper makes clear that an
effective framework of civil judicial cooperation is an important part of
the deep and special partnership we want to establish with the EU. It is
in the interests of the UK and the EU that there continues to be an
effective framework for resolving cross-border legal disputes after we
leave.

 

This will provide confidence and certainty to families, business and
individuals, ensuring they can continue to settle cross-border disputes
efficiently and effectively in the future. The current rules, on which we
hope to model a new agreement, provide a legal route to resolving often
difficult or desperate situations. That could be helping to return home a
child abducted by one of their parents. It could be two parents of
different nationalities divorcing and agreeing custody and financial
arrangements in the best interests of their children. It could be a small
business that has been left out of pocket by a supplier based in another
EU country.

 

Any system which requires cross border dialogue and cooperation needs a
common language to be effective.  To that end, as part of our future
partnership we want to agree a clear set of coherent, common rules about
which country’s courts will hear a case in the event of a dispute, which
country’s law will apply to resolve it, and how judgments can be
recognised and enforced across borders.

 

On 30 March 2017, the Government published a White Paper ‘[2]Legislating
for the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union’. The main
legislative vehicle will be the European Union (Withdrawal Bill) 2017-19
(the Repeal Bill). As a general approach the Repeal Bill aims to maximise
certainty, continuity and control for when the UK ceases to be a member of
the EU. Its’ purpose is to provide a functioning statute book on the day
we leave the EU and ensure that Parliament can make any future changes,
where appropriate. The Bill is designed to facilitate a smooth and orderly
exit.

 

The key elements of the Repeal Bill include:

o Repealing the European Communities Act 1972.
o Converting EU law (including the civil judicial cooperation framework
instruments) into UK law as it applies in the UK at the point of exit.
o Creating temporary, limited powers to make secondary legislation to
enable corrections to be made to laws that do not operate
appropriately once the UK has left the EU, and to enable the
Withdrawal Agreement to be implemented.

The powers in the Repeal Bill will ensure that, whatever the outcome of
negotiations with our EU partners, that the statute book can continue to
function on the day the UK leaves the EU. The timescale of the
negotiations means that the UK has to undertake the domestic legislative
process in tandem with the negotiations under Article 50 of the Treaty of
the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

 

In addition to the above, the UK will continue to be an active and
supportive member of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and
intends to participate in those Hague Conventions to which we are already
a party and those which we currently participate in by virtue of our
membership of the EU. In family law matters, these include:

 

o 1970 Convention on the Recognition of Divorces and Legal Separations

 

o 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction

 

o 1993 Convention on Adoption (Co-operation)

 

o 1996 Convention on Parental Responsibility and Measures for the
Protection of Children

 

o 2007 Convention on Recovery of Maintenance

 

 

Yours sincerely,

Ministry of Justice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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