The Family Justice Transparency Report Exposes a National Scandal.

There is a number that should stop every parent, policymaker, and taxpayer in their tracks: 1.7%.

That is not a typo. Not seventeen. Not seven. One point seven percent.

According to our newly published independent audit, fewer than two in every hundred enforcement applications in the Family Court result in any meaningful consequence when a parent breaches a Child Arrangements Order.

In any functioning justice system, that figure would trigger an emergency.

In family justice, it has quietly become normal.

This is not a story about “bitter exes.”

It is not a story about mothers versus fathers.

It is not even primarily a story about divorce.

It is a story about what happens when a court issues orders it does not enforce, warnings it does not honour, and promises to children it does not keep.

It is a story about a justice system that, in practice, has stopped acting like one.

This article is an investigative exposé revealing how UK Family Courts rarely enforce child contact orders, and how PAPA has made history by publishing the first large-scale transparency audit proving it.

If you are a parent currently going through family court, it is important that you join PAPA Plus and make use of our courses and other resources, including PAPA AI.

If you require direct assistance with your case, you can also book a call or one of our family law workshops with PAPA as a 'Plus' member.

A Report Born From Silence

The Family Justice Transparency Report, produced by People Against Parental Alienation (PAPA), exists for one simple reason: no official body collects or publishes meaningful data on what happens after Child Arrangements Orders are breached.

Courts routinely track how orders are made.

They rarely track whether those orders are obeyed.

Parents began reporting the same experience across England and Wales:

• Orders breached repeatedly

• Enforcement applications delayed or ignored

• No sanctions imposed

• Children left without contact for months

• Nothing changes

  
  

So parents built their own transparency audit.

Between 5 and 30 November 2025, over 1,400 submissions were collected.

After verification and filtering, the final dataset comprised 954 parents involved in private law children proceedings in England and Wales, including 231 formal enforcement applications (C79 forms).

What emerged was not a collection of edge cases.

It was a national pattern.

The Reality Behind the Headline

Here is what the Family Justice Transparency Report found:

• Only 4 out of 231 enforcement applications resulted in any punitive sanction

• That equals a punishment rate of 1.7%

• 98.3% of breaches carried no consequence at all

• 69% of parents experienced five or more breaches before enforcement was even attempted

• Over 53% waited longer than three months for an enforcement hearing

• Nearly 90% waited longer than one month

• During delays exceeding three months, 78 children had no contact with the parent they were ordered to see

• 96.6% of parents reported enforcement did not deter further breach

• 
  

Translated into plain English:

Court orders are being treated as suggestions.

Why This Is Not a Legal Gap

Every Child Arrangements Order contains a statutory warning under the Children Act 1989 stating that breach may result in punishment.

Courts already possess the power to impose:

• Fines

• Unpaid work requirements

• Compensation orders

• Suspended sentences

• Imprisonment

Parliament has already legislated.

The problem is not that the law is weak.

The problem is that the law is not being used.

This is not a legislative failure, it is an institutional failure.

What Non-Enforcement Does to Children

Children do not experience “procedural delay.”

They experience:

• Disappearing parents

• Broken routines

• Cancelled weekends

• Missed birthdays

• Silence where a relationship used to exist

• 
  

Month by month, absence becomes normal.

The longer contact is denied, the harder it becomes to restore.

Memories fade, attachment weakens, loyalty conflicts grow.

Children adapt to loss by assuming the relationship no longer matters.

A system that allows this is not neutral, it is actively reshaping childhoods.

No child welfare framework supports prolonged instability caused by institutional inaction.

How Non-Enforcement Rewards Bad Behaviour

In any system, people respond to incentives.

When breach carries consequence, compliance increases.

When breach carries nothing, non-compliance becomes rational.

The report shows:

• Parents learn that orders are unlikely to be enforced

• Obstruction becomes a viable strategy

• Delay becomes a weapon

• Compliance becomes optional

The court may intend neutrality.

The outcome is not neutral.

The outcome rewards the parent who breaches and punishes the parent who follows the rules.

The Hidden Public Cost

Non-enforcement does not save time or money, it multiplies both.

• Repeat hearings

• Repeated CAFCASS involvement

• Prolonged court supervision

• Escalating conflict

• Longer case lifecycles

• 
  

Early, consistent enforcement would shorten cases and reduce workload.

Instead, the system creates its own backlog.

A justice system cannot become efficient by refusing to enforce its own decisions.

It merely defers cost and magnifies harm.

The Question Nobody Wants to Answer

What does a court order mean if almost nobody is punished for breaching it?

In any other area of law, enforcement rates below 2% would be unthinkable.

If 98% of speeding offences carried no ticket, road safety would collapse.

If 98% of thefts carried no consequence, crime would surge.

Yet in family justice, this level of non-enforcement has quietly become standard.

A system that does not enforce its orders does not possess authority.

Without authority, it is not functioning as a court.

What Must Change

This report does not call for new laws, it calls for courts to use the powers they already have.

Specifically:

• Early enforcement after breach

• Time-limited enforcement hearings

• Meaningful use of existing sanctions

• Public reporting of enforcement outcomes

• National transparency on compliance rates

• 
  

None of this is radical.

It is foundational.

Why The Family Justice Transparency Report Matters

This is the first large-scale transparency audit focused specifically on what happens after orders are breached.

It creates a public record where none existed.

It makes denial impossible.

It documents, with data, what thousands of parents have been saying for years.

The Family Court is issuing orders it does not uphold.

This Is a Children’s Rights Issue

This is not a fathers’ rights issue, or a mothers’ rights issue.

It is a children’s rights issue.

Children have a right to meaningful relationships with both parents where safe.

That right becomes meaningless when court orders are optional.

Without enforcement, court orders are advisory.

Without consequence, warnings are empty.

Without authority, the system cannot function.

Reform is not optional.

It is overdue.

A Line Drawn in History

For decades, parents have been told that what they were experiencing was anecdotal, isolated, or simply the unfortunate side-effect of a “stretched system.”

The Family Justice Transparency Report ends that narrative.

This report does something no institution has been willing to do: it measures reality.

By gathering, verifying, and publishing large-scale enforcement data where none previously existed, we at PAPA have created the first public record of what actually happens after Child Arrangements Orders are breached.

Not what policy claims.

Not what guidance suggests.

But what parents and children live.

This is historic.

PAPA has done, independently and without funding, what government bodies, regulators, and oversight agencies have failed to do for years: shine a light into the darkest corner of private family law.

In doing so, we have permanently changed the conversation.

The question is no longer whether enforcement failure exists. It is documented.

The question is no longer whether this is exceptional. It is systemic.

Once truth is recorded, it cannot be unseen.

This report will stand as a line in history between an era of denial and an era of accountability.

It gives journalists evidence.

It gives policymakers data.

It gives courts a mirror.

And it gives parents and children something they have rarely had in family justice:

Proof.

We have not simply published a report, we have created a record that future reforms will be measured against.

We have made silence impossible.

And in doing so, we have taken the first irreversible step toward restoring enforcement, restoring authority, and restoring the basic promise that court orders, and children’s relationships actually matter.

You can view and download the FULL report here.

In need of help or support?

If you are an alienated parent reading this article and feel you are in need of help and support then please make sure to join PAPA today by signing up here on our website.

This will give you access to our community support forum as well as our Resource Centre, which includes downloadable guides and on-demand courses to help through the process of being alienated and regaining contact with your children.

We also have our Facebook support group that you can join here.

Our Facebook support group has several dedicated chat rooms where you can get immediate support.

If you are a member of PAPA you can also send us a message here on the website and we will try to get back to you as soon as possible but please bear in mind, we have hundreds of messages weekly so it may take us a while to get back to you.

We are currently prioritising PAPA Plus members due to high demand.

Regardless of circumstance you are not alone and at PAPA we are here to support you.

Become a PAPA Ambassador

If you like our resources, articles and support networks and agree with what we stand for then why not get involved and help us push PAPA further by joining our Ambassador Program?

We would love for you to join us and help spread awareness for parental alienation and all of the dynamics involved so that we can continue to help parents and children towards a better future.

Our Ambassador Program allows you to grow your involvement with the cause by earning points on your membership.

To earn points we have created rewards for actions such as completing one of our courses, booking a case review, or ordering supply.

We will be adding new rewards and actions to our Ambassador Program as we continue to grow our awareness efforts.

We want our members to feel rewarded for their support as we continue to look for new ways to improve the lives of those impacted by parental alienation.

You can also become a PAPA Plus member, which will give you exclusive access to even more help and resources.

Each PAPA Plus membership makes a huge difference to the cause as it really helps us to improve our services and our awareness campaigns.

Proceeds from memberships and supply allow us to push the cause much further towards raising awareness and improving our services and resources so that we can continue to help more and more parents and children.

Thank you for reading and for your continued support of PAPA and our mission to end parental alienation.