Government admits child custody cases to be 'much more difficult' if Britain quits EU without deal

Divorced parents will find it much harder to bring their children back to the UK from Europe if the Government fails to strike a Brexit deal, Whitehall officials have admitted.



British businesses also face more lengthy legal battles if the UK crashes out of the bloc with no agreement in place, they conceded.

The Government today published its proposals for replacing the current system of settling civil legal disputes between EU member states after Brexit.

Senior officials said they want to agree a "clear and coherent set of rules" which would virtually replicate the present set-up.

However, Brussels has so far refused to give any indication that it is willing to give the UK what it wants.

Cross-border divorce and custody cases are among those which will be affected by the new system.

The officials were asked about a potential scenario where a British court orders that a child living with its father in France should be returned to its mother in the UK.

"If we don't have a future agreement of the type we're proposing here and we've left the European Union, under those circumstances we'd be looking at whether there were any other international agreements that govern child abduction," one official said.

"The thing you get at the moment you wouldn't get under alternatives is a discussion between the courts. So in that scenario, there would have to be a discussion between the French court's order and the British courts as to what's going on with that particular child. It would be much more difficult."

Asked whether UK businesses could also be affected by a failure to reach a deal mirroring the existing arrangements, another official said: “There are Hague conventions that help in this respect, particularly in terms of choice of jurisdiction, the choice of court, the choice of law.

“The fact is none of these systems are as effective, as speedy, as quick, as easy, as certainly the current arrangements that we have with the EU, and indeed the future arrangements that we want to agree."

One official also admitted the UK has no idea how well its proposals will be received by Brussels.

"I would hope that this lands well with the EU and the EU can see the benefits that we see and that we can have a set of discussions where there isn't a great deal of divergence," the official said. "That's our hope - it remains to be seen how that works."