Consultation on Revised Family Public Law and Private Law Allocation and Gatekeeping Guidance

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A message from Mr Justice Keehan:

In February 2024, the President of the Family Division’s Family Executive Team, chaired by me, established the Family Magistrates Working Group to consider the allocation of work to magistrates. This group includes judges, magistrates and legal advisers.

Following a review of the existing Allocation and Gatekeeping Guidance, the Family Magistrates Working Group considered that the whole guidance required updating. The President approved this exercise being undertaken. As a result, a dedicated Allocation Guidance Working Group was formed, comprising Lord Justice Baker, a Circuit Judge, a District Judge, two Senior Legal Managers and myself.

We have undertaken a complete re-draft of the guidance. Key points to consider include:

  1. Public and Private Law cases are combined into a single guidance document. In respect of Private Law, it covers both Child Arrangements Programme cases and Pathfinder cases.
  2. The tables in the old sets of guidance are replaced by lists of the type of cases which should be listed before the various levels of judicial office holders.
  3. Provision is now made in the guidance for allocation to magistrates, whereas previously reference was made only to District Judges and Circuit Judges.
  4. We have included adoption cases, which previously were referred to only in para 5 of the Schedule to the 2014 Rules.

    The President of the Family Division has approved the final draft of the proposed new guidance document, which can be downloaded below. We are now inviting feedback through a public consultation, which will run from Monday 1 September to 4pm on Friday 10 October 2025.

    All responses should be submitted through https://forms.office.com/e/7nhZmFECGa. Please note that responses are limited to 4,000 characters (around 650 words). If you wish to submit a longer response or have any questions, please contact the Judicial Office at jostrategyandmodernisation@judiciary.uk.

    Mr Justice Keehan
    Lead Family Presiding Judge

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