Closed petition Make contact orders work by making it within the jurisdiction of the police to enforce it

Closed on 30 November 2014

Parents who are refused access to their children may spend time and money having a contact order imposed by a court but when that order is flouted it becomes useless because it’s unenforceable.Despite an order being binding upon those it relates to, the courts are reluctant to, and rarely do act against breaches of contact orders. This is because the options available to them are limited and unrealistic: imprisonment, fine or unpaid community work. Those options are often unworkable with single parents. There are now more separated parents than ever; too many children are going without contact with a parent. This inevitably causes long term damage to children. Damaged children= damaged adults. Damaged adults will cost money: treatment for depression, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. When children want to see their other parent why not spend money on sending plain clothed officers to enforce the order, by reasoning or using force if necessary, to hand the children over.