Reducing conflict in divorce and dissolution by the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020: continuity, change or contrast?

John Haskey FAcSS AKC University of Oxford Department of Social Policy and Intervention

This article assesses some recently published statistics for 2022 on joint and sole notifications of divorce and civil partnership dissolution – these statistics being the first to map the effect of the Divorce Dissolution and Separation Act 2020. Whilst further statistics in forthcoming years will be needed to gauge trends and make dependable comparisons with earlier pre-2020 Act trends an early first assessment with suitable caveats is opportune. Two straightforward measures have been used to evaluate the statistics to see whether the new law might be beginning to achieve a reduction of conflict in proceedings. These measures are the proportions of divorces and dissolutions under the 2020 Act which were joint notifications and the proportions of the pre-2020 Act divorces and dissolutions which were granted on 2 years’ separation with the respondent’s consent. Both these proportions are tentatively taken to measure the proportions of low conflict divorces and dissolutions and comparisons are made between...