Following the success of the family court reporting pilot, the Family Procedure Rule Committee has approved a proposal to rollout the reporting pilot nationally, through changes to the Family Procedure Rules and new practice directions. The statutory instrument required to make those changes was signed at the end of December 2024.

The effect of this is that the new ‘Reporting Provisions’ will apply in all family courts in England and Wales from Monday 27 January 2025. This means that journalists and legal bloggers will be able to report on what they see and hear whilst attending any family court, if a transparency order is granted. The change means that there is a presumption that a transparency order, protecting the anonymity of the children and family, is granted, unless there is a legitimate reason not to.

The reporting pilot followed the President of the Family Division, Sir Andrew MacFarlane’s, Transparency Review, and started in January 2023 in Cardiff, Leeds and Carlisle. The pilot extended in January 2024 to cover nearly half of the family courts in England and Wales. There have been no known breaches of anonymity in reporting under the pilot.

Implementation to the remaining courts will follow stepped arrangements, as in the reporting pilot, starting with public law cases, then private law cases and finally magistrates.