§ Rev. Ian PaisleyTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department for what reason a non-molestation order is treated as a criminal case and an access order is treated as a civil case. [121499]
§ Mr. IngramI have been asked to reply.
The Family Homes and Domestic Violence (NI) Order 1998 creates a new unified and coherent legal regime for dealing with domestic violence. The old personal protection orders have been replaced by non-molestation orders. The non-molestation orders are civil orders made by the court for the protection of the applicant and any children who may be at risk of family violence. The breach of a non-molestation order, involving as it does the threat of violence to the protected person(s), is appropriately a criminal offence and police officers are empowered to arrest for breach of such an order.
An access order, since the introduction of the Children (NI) Order 1996 known as a contact order, is an order by the court to provide for contact between a parent and a child in circumstances where that parent is not living with the child. Breach of contact orders may be treated as contempt of court. However, difficulties in ensuring contact between children and parents may involve many complicated relationship factors and require to be dealt with sensitively within the family civil law system.