The government should pay for all family mediation information assessment meetings (MIAMs) for 12 months, and increase fees paid to mediators and solicitors, a major report into mediation has concluded.
The Family Mediation Task Force, led by Sir David Norgrove, was commissioned by the Ministry of Justice after publicly funded family mediations fell by a third following the introduction of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) last April.
Its report, published last week, recommends increasing fees for mediators for a fixed three-year period, and making MIAMs exempt from the 12-month residence test for eligibility.
The Legal Aid Agency had planned for a spending increase of £10m in mediation, to £25m per year following LASPO. In reality, public spending on mediation dropped by more than a half, or by about £8m per year to under £6m per year.
This resulted in redundancies and some closures among mediation businesses.
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