Unregulated Experts in Family Court Children Proceedings

From March to June 2025, the Family Procedure Rule Committee held a consultation on new Family Procedure Rule 25.5A concerning the instruction of unregulated experts. The consultation also proposed amendments to FPR 25.2 and Practice Directions ('PDs') 25B and 25C.  The aim of new FPR 25.5A is to require any expert instructed in family law children proceedings to be regulated. A key purpose of the changes is to ensure that any expert instructed in family law children proceedings has the appropriate skills and qualifications on which to base their expert evidence. 

In the minutes of its April meeting (fprc-mins-13-april-2026.pdf), the Committee indicated that changes to the FPR on unregulated experts in children proceedings will be included in the next statutory instrument, expected in July, alongside the corresponding practice direction changes. The key change from the consultation drafting related to consideration of how forensic experts should be reflected in the changes. The Committee decided that, rather than attempting to make the rule apply to forensic experts, they would be exempted and a new definition of ‘technical expert’ be introduced to provide for this.

The Committee also indicated that they will be re-looking at whether to extend the rule change to financial remedy proceedings, with proposals for next steps being considered at their May meeting.