5 October 2016, Central government
The complainant has requested information from the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (‘Cafcass’) regarding the number of Family Court cases where it has been recommended that the children involved should spend more time with their father rather than their mother. He has also requested that Cafcass should clarify how its compliance to anti-discrimination law in such cases has so far been monitored. Cafcass has applied section 12 to the first part of this request and has provided the complainant with information which explains how it monitors its casework. It has referred the complainant to its policies and its Equality and Diversity Strategy. The Commissioner is satisfied that Cafcass is correct to apply section 12 to the first part of this request. The Commissioner also considers that on the balance of probabilities, Cafcass does not hold the specific gender monitoring data required by the complainant. Its response to this part of the request is therefore in accordance with section 1(1)(a) and (b) of the FOIA. There are no further steps to be taken. This decision notice is currently under appeal to the Tribunal.
FOI 1: Not upheld FOI 12: Not upheld