B Maloney
Cafcass National Office
3rd Floor
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
21 Bloomsbury Street
London
Your ref: CAF 17-74
WC1B 3HF
Our ref: Gov/CAF 17-74
Tel 0300 456 4000
11 July 2017
Dear B Maloney
Re: Freedom of Information Request
Thank you for your email of 16 June 2017. You made the following requests for information:
In the Panel Discussion Report from your Cafcass Open Board Meeting 27th January
2017
(https://www.cafcass.gov.uk/media/304301/open_board_panel_discussion_report.pdf
) in the section entitled "2. Joint research" you say that Cafcass is undertaking joint
research with Women's Aid to better understand what is happening where there are
allegations of domestic violence in family court cases about child contact. Please
provide me with the following information:
1) What is the exact brief of the research?
2) What criteria will be used to select the cases for the research?
3) Who are the members of the research team?
4) What are the academic qualifications of the researchers?
5) How much funding is Cafcass providing for this research?
6) Is any funding being provided to Women's Aid, if so, how much?
7) Will any Cafcass staff be involved in the research and in what capacity?
8) What is the definition of domestic violence to be used in the research to identify
allegations?
9) Is the research also looking at false allegations of domestic abuse?
10) How will the researchers identify and report cases of false allegations of domestic
abuse?
Please see below for our response.
Baroness Tyler of Enfield Chair
Anthony Douglas CBE Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF
This information is information relating to ongoing research between Cafcass and
Women’s Aid. It is therefore currently exempt from disclosure under
Section 22 A of
the Freedom of Information Act.
Section 22 A of the Freedom of Information Act
(1) Information obtained in the course of, or derived from, a programme of research is
exempt information if —
(a) the programme is continuing with a view to the publication, by a public authority or
any other person, of a report of the research (whether or not including a statement of
that information), and
(b) disclosure of the information under this Act before the date of publication would, or
would be likely to, prejudice —
(i) the programme,
(ii) the interests of any individual participating in the programme,
(iii) the interests of the authority which holds the information, or
(iv) the interests of the authority mentioned in paragraph (a) (if it is a different
authority from that which holds the information).
(2) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise in relation to information which is (or if
it were held by the public authority would be) exempt information by virtue of
subsection (1) if, or to the extent that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) would, or would
be likely to, prejudice any of the matters mentioned in subsection (1)(b).
We hope that you feel your question has been answered effectively. If you are unhappy with
the decisions made in relation to your request, you may ask for an internal review to be
undertaken. If you are dissatisfied with the way the internal review is handled or with the
final decision made at that review about the information released, you are free to contact the
Information Commissioner’s Office
(https://ico.org.uk/):
Post
Fax
Information Commissioner's Office
01625 524 510
Wycliffe House, Water Lane,
Tel
Wilmslow,
0303 123 1113
Cheshire
E-mail
SK9 5AF
xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
Yours sincerely,
Governance Team
Cafcass
Baroness Tyler of Enfield Chair
Anthony Douglas CBE Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF
xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx
Baroness Tyler of Enfield Chair
Anthony Douglas CBE Chief Executive
Cafcass, the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, is a non-departmental body of the Ministry of Justice
Cafcass National Office, 3rd Floor, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, WC1B 3HF