Mothers or fathers in prison for murdering the other parent will be stripped of parental responsibility under new powers to be outlined by Alex Chalk in his first party conference speech as justice secretary today.
'Jade's Law' will automatically suspend parental responsibility from a parent convicted of the murder or voluntary manslaughter of the other parent. The Ministry of Justice said this will ensure children are protected from their remaining parent having any say in their life, such as which school to attend.
The court will still consider the best interests of the child through a 'rapid and robust' review stage, and can potentially lift the suspension. Parents with diminished responsibility following a history of domestic abuse will be exempt from the suspension. The burden on family members to apply to the family court will be removed so they can focus on looking after the child.
The new measures are named after Jade Ward, who was stabbed and strangled by her partner, Russell Marsh, in 2021 while their children were sleeping. The ministry said Marsh has attempted to control his children from behind bars - he retains rights to request school reports and medical details, and could even block them getting therapy and travelling abroad.
'Jade's Law' will be introduced to parliament as part of the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
Ahead of his speech, Chalk said: 'Jade Ward's case and the moving campaign of her family has exposed an injustice in our family justice system, one that we are committed to fixing. Murderers who kill their partners should not be able to manipulate and control their children from behind bars, which is why we are fixing the law to protect families from this appalling behaviour.'
The justice secretary is also announcing today that the extension of whole life orders will apply retrospectively to 'vicious murderers' not yet sentenced when new legislation comes into force.
In August the government announced a new expectation on judges to hand down whole life orders where they can apply, and extended their application to include those who commit murder with sexual or sadistic conduct.
Criminal Bar Association chair Tana Adkin KC called the policy to apply whole life orders retrospectively a 'knee jerk reaction' and said the government should focus attention and resources on bringing down the Crown court backlog, which reached a record high this year.
