Disclosure of witness statement

Re C (a child): CA (Civ Div) 2 September; LSG 9 October

The applicant’s father sought permission to appeal against a refusal of permission to disclose a witness statement to specified medical professionals in respect of his son who suffered from Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was an in-patient at an adolescent mental health unit. The son had made it quite clear that he wanted no contact with his father, for which the father blamed the mother. The judge had granted part of the father’s application for disclosure by directing that he be permitted to disclose transcripts of four judgments to the consultant psychiatrist in charge of the son’s treatment and to his GP. The judge had refused to authorise disclosure of a recent witness statement made by the father, to which an earlier statement was appended, on the basis that it contained the father’s perception of the problems that had arisen as regards his relationship with his son, a perception that was not shared by the mother and as such the statement could not be regarded by any professional as an agreed document or a document containing facts as found by the court. The father contended that the judge was not qualified to assess whether disclosure of the witness statements might assist in his son’s treatment and ought to have appreciated that the treating professionals might be assisted by them. In any event the father contended that pursuant to r10.20A (3) of the Family Proceedings Rules 1991 permission from the judge to send witness statements to treating clinicians was not necessarily required if the purpose of the disclosure was ‘to enable the … child … to obtain healthcare or counselling’.