HC Deb 01 July 1993 vol 227 c575W
Mr. Butcher

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will bring forward proposals to amend the law to compel fathers or alleged fathers, in cases of contested paternity, to take blood tests, or to allow the court to take refusal to take a blood test into account in deciding paternity cases and to provide that repeated refusal to take a blood test will be construed as evidence supporting the case of the opposing litigant.

Mr. John M. Taylor

I have no plans to amend the law to make blood tests compulsory in cases of disputed paternity. Under the provisions of section 23 of the Family Law Reform Act 1969, as amended, courts may already draw what inferences seem appropriate in any particular case from a refusal to undertake a blood test.