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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Hannah Summers

MPs call for inquiry into use of ‘alienation’ claims in parental disputes

Sign outside Central Family Court and The Court of Protection, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, UK.
One MP said that ‘unregulated self-declared experts are invited to give evidence even though they have little to nothing in the way of formal qualifications’. Photograph: CAMimage/Alamy

An urgent inquiry is needed into unregulated psychological experts ​being used in high-conflict disputes to ​​diagnose whether one parent has attempted to “alienate” ​their child ​from ​the other​, MPs have said.

Opening a debate on family court changes in England and Wales, the MP for Coventry North West, Taiwo Owatemi, said false claims of so-called parental alienation were the “most damning aspect of our family court system”.

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